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(09/04/20 2:03am)
By August 29, all but one member of the on-campus student body had tested negative upon arrival for Covid-19. As results trickled in Sunday afternoon, cheers echoed down residence halls as students, who had been confined to their room for nearly two days, rushed outside to join their friends and peers. Many embarked on jogs around campus while others sat distanced on the grass in groups — resisting the familiar temptation to hug, hold hands or share a meal in close proximity. Despite the strangeness that accompanied navigating this new normal, the tone that fell over campus was one of elation, commotion and relief.
But as we continue to reunite with friends, classmates and significant others, it remains imperative that we do not allow our excitement to sideline or relax the necessary safety precautions. Yes, our arrival day results were favorable — affirming that students took their 14-day home quarantine seriously. But we cannot let our guard down right now.
It is crucial to remember that Covid-19 has a median incubation period of four to five days. Any transmission that occurred during travel to campus, especially in regard to airplane travel, will likely not result in a positive test until about five days following the original exposure — if not later. This is why all students will be tested on Day Seven, as testing negative on Day Zero does not necessarily mean you do not have the virus. Thus, we urge the administration to underscore the importance of the next few days regarding the ability to pull off an on campus semester — a message that has been somewhat vacant from administrative communication since last Friday.
As the Day Seven testing approaches, we must remain attentive to this risk and not fall victim to a distorted sense of security or freedom. Take the University of Notre Dame as an example: Positive results from testing on arrival there first remained in the single digits. Ten days later, there were over 600 active cases on campus. We must ensure that we are not celebrating prematurely while unknowingly rushing headfirst into a situation that endangers both the wider community and those around us.
While it may not seem like it at first glance, the behavior we exhibit this week will determine how the rest of the semester plays out. If we do not strictly adhere to safety guidelines during its incubation period, the virus can easily disperse through the student body. Even slight transgressions have the capacity to be unmasked as precarious consequences, as actions of a few individuals could cause infection to reverberate throughout the community. For instance, at the University of Southern California, small group gatherings like study groups or students playing board games are believed to be the leading source of Covid-19 spread, even though larger parties have been taking place in tandem.
We get it. This is tough. Not seeing your friends for five months (if not more) is excruciating. Finally reuniting with them after so long and still being unable to hug or interact in close proximity doesn’t come naturally. But as painfully enticing as it may be to visit a romantic partner or invite another suite over for drinks, the potential damage of such choices far outweigh the temporary high.
It can feel bleak, but we must let go of our beloved routines for the time being — the Saturday morning trips to Burlington, the jam-packed Atwater ragers, the bustle of Proc at 6:30 p.m. It’s hard and it sucks — and we shouldn’t pretend that it doesn’t. But we also cannot pretend that it is possible for us to live those same lives right now. After all, the more intentional and patient we are now, the more independence we’ll be granted in later phases.
More importantly, now more than ever, we must consider the implications of what it means to be a part of the Middlebury community: acting not just for ourselves and those around us, but also for those we have never met. For the staff that clean the spaces we use and serve our meals. For professors who return home to their families each day. For those in town who have welcomed us over the years. And in the case of a campus closure, for our fellow students who may not have homes to return to.
Students must be responsible in their social and personal lives, but they can only do so when given the tools to succeed. Ambiguity and a lack of clarity in official communications have enabled dangerous and reckless behavior. Notably, the college did not substantially differentiate protocols for this week — the time between Day Zero and Day Seven tests — from the remainder of Phase One, even though this stage of campus quarantine is significantly more consequential.
Students have also received nebulous mixed messages as the line between activities that are “permitted” and “suggested” continues to be blurred. For instance, students encountered conflicting information pertaining to regulations about visiting other student's rooms. Ambiguity has also characterized other facets of campus life: visitors have sauntered through campus, assigned dining halls and times are going unenforced, and students report having not completed any of their daily health checks. Without distinct enforcement and clarity regarding supposed rules, it’s no wonder students have been left to make half-hearted guesses about serious health considerations.
Therefore we urge the administration to reinforce explicit stances in order to uphold safe and consistent conduct. After all, it is impossible for any of us to make perfect choices without their leadership and transparency, which we hope they can consistently and definitively provide from here on out.
Countless colleges and universities across the nation have risen only to quickly fall, leaving behind a wake of exposure and infection, not to mention the widespread financial catastrophe and emotional loss. Complacency is not an option, and we cannot pretend like Middlebury will be the inevitable exception. We have to fight for this, hard.
Lily Laesch
Porter Bowman
Benjy Renton
Shaye Anis
Brinlea La Barge
Bochu Ding
Kenzo Okazaki
Emmanuel Tamrat
Ideal Dowling
Micaela Gayner
Ben Glass
Rebecca Amen
Hannah Bensen
Owen Mason-Hill
Ho June Rhee
Blaise Siefer
Sarah Fagan
Diana Diaz
Riley Board
James Finn
Sophie Hiland
Daleelah Saleh
Van Barth
Jane Earley
Sabrina Templeton
Em Ballou
Erin Kelly
Katelyn Mei
Cheryl Engmann
Elsa Korpi
Lucy Townend
Constance Gooding
Isabella Marcus
Shirley Mao
Annika Hoerner
Abigail Chang
(07/14/20 4:53am)
Summer of 2020 is a time of national soul searching. After the horrific killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and countless other Black Americans, Black Lives Matter has become a rallying cry for a sizable number of American citizens and residents.
It is sadly telling that just when many programs and departments at Middlebury College, including my own, have issued statements of support for racial justice, my colleague and friend Marissel Hernández-Romero recounts some of the many racist incidents she has experienced at Middlebury and at the Department of Luso-Hispanic studies since her arrival three years ago.
Middlebury College prides itself on promoting diversity among its students and faculty, often boasting its statistics and glossy images of BIPOC community members. But our college will not be truly diverse until it provides a safe environment for the handful of Black and other minority employees. In failing to nurture them, we undermine their careers and benefit those who have always held power. In other words, we support a White supremacist institution.
I can say many things about Dr. Hernández-Romero’s years at Middlebury College, but her letter provides a better glimpse into her life here as a hell of alienation and silence than I could offer. And what better evidence is there of this hell than the college taking less than two hours to scrub her message from our community’s email servers? Then came the explanation to add paternalism to the silencing.
I am angry. I have been angry seeing colleagues act as if she did not exist. I am angry that her concerns were not taken seriously, and her demands postponed. Sadly she is not alone; she is one of several women to leave Middlebury this year for appointments at peer institutions. I feel a deep sense of loss but also of responsibility. We failed to support them; thus, we deserve losing them. But our students do not.
As hurtful as these events are, they are not unique, but simply the latest in a long timeline of the college’s failures to demonstrate a true commitment to diversity. They find echoes in my department’s own history. I have many times seen colleagues — the vast majority female, many of color, some LGBT — feel unwelcome, fail to thrive, then leave. Others have stayed, but cope by keeping distance from a toxic environment.
I am disheartened by how little has changed since I arrived on a one-year appointment, 24 years ago. Soon after my arrival, I met my two “senior junior” colleagues who, unlike me, had tenure track appointments. I was happy to have role models who could show me the way, until the end of the year when they announced they were both quitting. When I asked why, one of them, a Black female colleague, said: Stay long enough and you will see.
I did, and soon my departed colleague’s words proved right. I saw many colleagues, mostly members of vulnerable groups, humiliated and undermined. In addition to my colleagues who departed in 1997, at least two more left their tenure track jobs after passing the first reviews. Two others saw their applications for tenure-track positions dismissed in what I believe to be irregular and unethical ways. Two more endured and were awarded tenure, but within a few years their bodies gave out. If you were here in 2013 or 2017 you remember them; if not, you probably have heard their names — Ana Martínez-Lage and Juana Gamero de Coca.
I too was part of that group. Throughout my pre-tenure years, I was the target of misogynistic and racist attacks while the leadership in my department stood by: some as enablers, others as co-victims. Only when I got tenure — in what seemed a miraculous event — did I feel I could ask for protection. My many meetings with the Dean of Faculty and the President of the College (in a previous administration) went nowhere until I hand-delivered to them a written account of what they already knew. That was the turning point: the paper trail compelled them to act. My tormentor left, and I eventually healed.
Others came after me, and eventually Dr. Hernández-Romero: the first Black woman to join our department since 1997. Like me, she went for help to the leadership after many instances of racism. Unlike me, she was listened to, but received no recourse. In this we have failed her. The fact that some in our department have been targets of misogyny, racism, classism or other forms of bigotry does not remove our responsibility. On the contrary, our experiences should foster deeper empathy for others and raise the standards we hold ourselves to.
What happened to Dr. Hernández-Romero is not an individual problem, but an institutional one. Our review system, for instance, places our junior colleagues in a relationship of dependency. The mentorship they require is based on trust and respect. If senior colleagues doubt juniors’ lived experiences, if they deny them support and recourse, if they believe they are not “one of us”: how can they overcome? We could, instead, start by taking their grievances seriously; we could show that we want them to succeed — a disposition that has surely helped many White male professors through the tenure process.
What would it take for us to apply our policies towards the anti-racist goals in our Black Lives Matter statements? And can we turn our liberal institution into a radical one? We have the expertise and the resources; I hope we have the courage.
Gloria Estela González Zenteno is Professor of Luso-Hispanic Studies and Director of the International and Global Studies Program.
(07/14/20 4:47am)
In addition to the Covid-19-related difficulties all Vermonters face — such as finding childcare or struggling to pay rent — migrant farmworkers in the state are encountering additional challenges during the pandemic, according to Vermont Director of Racial Equity Xusana Davis.
“[Migrant workers] are more legally vulnerable than a lot of other Vermonters because of things like immigration, wage effects, lack of labor protection, et cetera,” Davis said. “So all of these things really compounded to make Covid-19 especially difficult for a population that was already vulnerable for a lot of reasons.”
The roughly 1,300 migrant farmworkers have also been excluded from the $1,200 stimulus payments that were a product of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. Congress passed the bill in late March to provide economic assistance to families, businesses and workers.
Federal regulations mandate that states use federal Covid-19 relief funds for U.S. citizens, permanent residents and other qualifying immigrant groups who meet certain specifications. Recipients must also have t a Social Security number, meaning that certain groups, such as undocumented immigrants or F-1 student visa holders, would not qualify for stimulus payments.
In cases of mixed-status families, in which one spouse with a Social Security number is married to an individual with an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) and the pair filed taxes jointly, neither individual would qualify for federal payments.
In mid-May, Migrant Justice, an organization based in Vermont whose mission is to organize for economic justice and human rights for the farmworker community, spearheaded a call-your-legislator campaign that advocated for Vermont legislators to create a Covid-19 relief fund for immigrant families.
“We have a population of people we consider to be essential,” Davis said. “But they are essential not just to Vermont’s bottom line. They are essential to our state as a whole, just as people.”
According to Vermont State Senator Ruth Hardy, Vermont received about $1.25 billion from federal Covid-19 Relief Funds (CRF), money distributed to each state to help with economic consequences of the virus. Hardy was involved in discussions with the Senate Agriculture Committee back in May to provide $500 payments to every farmworker in Vermont. These efforts have fizzled as the legislature later learned that providing payments to migrant workers would not be an eligible use of the CRF money “for a variety of reasons,” according to Hardy.
First, states cannot use federal funds for stimulus payments to people who do not have social security or other documentation, Hardy said. The state must also be careful to use the funds for eligible recipients — the state would never want to provide stimulus payment and then be in the position where they would have to ask for that payment back, according to Hardy.
“There isn’t a clear connection between just providing the funds to the workers and the allowable uses of the CRF funds, which have to be for economic harm or expenses due directly from the Covid-19 crisis,” said Hardy.
State funding is not really an option either, Hardy said. Vermont’s General Fund, which is normally used to fund state programs and operations, has been severely depleted due to the declining revenues from sales taxes and other taxes. According to Hardy, the state’s funds are about “$350 million in the red right now.”
Last week, Hardy was among a group of legislators who met with the Vermont Community Foundation, a charity that identifies communities in need and provides financial resources, to investigate the possibility of using private philanthropic funds to assist migrant workers and other workers who were not eligible to receive a federal stimulus payment.
The discussions are still in their early stages, and Hardy said that the Foundation has received inquiries from other groups of people requesting philanthropic assistance. However, Hardy said she believes the private route may be the best option at this point.
“There is a lot of demand for every type of money, whether it is federal money or state money or private money,” Hardy said.
Many of Vermont’s dairy farms, where many migrant workers are employed, have responded with precautionary measures to prevent the spread of the virus. The measures have seemingly been effective so far: the Open Door Clinic, a free health clinic for people who are uninsured or underinsured in Addison County, has documented only one patient with Covid-19, said Julia Doucet, the clinic’s outreach nurse and nurse case manager.
“What [farmers] have done is isolate the farm instead of isolating the individuals,” Doucet said in an interview with The Campus. According to Doucet, the challenges that migrant workers are facing are not unique to the Covid-19 pandemic, but are nonetheless heightened by it.
“They have always struggled with food insecurity,” Doucet said. “They have always struggled with social isolation. They have always struggled with lack of transportation. But Covid-19 has, in some ways, made it worse.”
Doucet said that the coronavirus has diminished the support system that migrant workers have. For example, The Addison Allies, a network of volunteers in Addison County that provides transportation, social interaction and in-person English lessons to migrant workers, has had to hold off on volunteering during the pandemic. Many of the volunteers are considered “higher risk” and therefore have to abide more strictly by social distancing guidelines.
Migrant workers may also face language barriers in acquiring health care or information about the virus. In addition, some workers may not have the necessary materials to identify the symptoms of the coronavirus, according to Doucet.
“There was not a single farmworker that we spoke to who said, ‘Oh, let me take my temperature on this thermometer I have in the bathroom,’” Doucet said.
The Open Door Clinic subsequently put together “Covid Kits” with soap, hand sanitizer, ibuprofen and masks. Many of the supplies were donated, and the masks were hand-sewn by community members. In total, the clinic was able to give 750 masks to 51 farms, according to Doucet.
Doucet also said the Open Door Clinic has been working hard to plan ahead and reach out to farmworkers ahead of the coronavirus spike that is expected to occur in fall and winter. They are also working with the Vermont Department of Health to make sure there is proper language access for contact tracing in Spanish.
“We’re all fairly concerned about what this fall will bring,” Doucet said. “I don’t know if we can get lucky enough and get through a second season with only one worker getting sick.”
Editor’s Note: Ruth Hardy is married to Middlebury College Professor of Film and Media Culture Jason Mittell, who is the Campus’s academic advisor. All questions may be directed to campus@middlebury.edu.
(07/14/20 4:35am)
UPDATE — Tuesday, July 14
The Trump administration has rescinded its policy that would have forced international students pursuing remote learning to leave the country. Middlebury alumna Judge Alison D. Burroughs announced the decision on Tuesday.
——
International students who only take online courses next fall must leave the country, according to a new policy from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Issued on July 6, the policy affects roughly 10% of the Middlebury student population — or 250 international students with F-1 or M-1 visas — according to the college's statistics.
The new regulation also refuses visas to incoming students enrolled in fully-online schools. Nationwide, it impacts 1,095,299 international students, according to The Institute of International Education.
In response, Harvard and MIT — two schools that have announced fully remote semesters — filed a lawsuit against ICE protesting the policy. Middlebury will file an amicus brief in support of Harvard and MIT, according to an email sent to all students. In addition, Middlebury alumna Judge Alison D. Burroughs ’83 will preside over the hearing.
Arthur Martins ’22.5 from Brazil, co-president of the International Students’ Organization (ISO), and Masud Tyree Lewis ‘22 from Guyana, executive board member of ISO, called the policy “pure xenophobia.”
New Uncertainties
Under the policy, international students from hybrid schools such as Middlebury must take at least one in-person class. According to Martins, this requirement eliminates the option of a remote semester.
If the colleges close down mid-semester, international students must also leave the country. If not, “they may face immigration consequences including, but not limited to … removal proceedings,” the policy read.
A mid-semester close down and the resulting eviction is Lewis’ biggest worry, who believes that a second wave is likely. “For someone like me who can't easily travel home, it's just a very uneasy place to be,” Lewis said.
Martins, who also faces severe travel restrictions, shares Lewis’ concerns.
As Brazilian citizens are currently prohibited from entering the United States, Martins must spend two weeks in Mexico before crossing the border and then undergo more quarantine and testing on campus. He is concerned about the added Covid-19 health risk of taking more long international flights as a result of a mandatory departure.
Martins is also very worried about his “complicated family and housing situation and [his] reliance on insurance from the college to treat [his] mental health” if he has to leave the country. He believes this concern is shared by many other international students.
“It's all too clear that we're not welcome here,” said Lewis.
For international students enrolled in fully-online institutions, the policy requires them to leave the country or “transfer to a school with in-person instruction.” The latter is almost impossible given the lack of notice. The policy also neither grants visas to new students enrolled in fully-online institutions nor allows them to enter U.S. borders.
Judge Burroughs said during the hearing that “the idea that the students could be irreparably harmed, as well as the interests of society in the outcome, were fairly clear,” according to a New York Times article.
When reached for a comment, Burroughs said that she could not respond due to legal reasons.
Dissenting Voices
The policy is seen as the Trump administration’s way of “pressuring universities into reopening...even as U.S. virus cases topped three million,” according to a New York Times article.
Currently, 59% of colleges are planning to resume in-person teaching, 25% are planning hybrid mode, and 8% are planning to hold classes online only, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education. Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, policy counsel at the American Immigration Council, anticipates changes to universities’ fall plans due to the new policy.
“The United States is back with its gross brand of nativism,” said Elsa Korpi ‘22 from Finland. “It’s a ... perverted way to force foreign nationals into in-person instruction after [its] Covid-19 response failed miserably.”
A current petition on the White House’s website calls for the Trump administration to rescind the policy. It argues that the policy eliminates the economic benefits derived from international students, harms universities’ revenues, diverts global talent, as well as increases Covid-19 health risks by compelling schools to reopen prematurely.
The petition currently has over 143,000 signatures.
Martins and Lewis believe that policy causes a great deal of harm without legitimate benefits.
“International students are constantly targeted and discriminated against in the United States,” Martins said. “We need to constantly prove that we are worthy of pursuing an education in this country.”
Response from the College
Kathy Foley, director of International Students & Scholar Services (ISSS), said the “college did not anticipate this outcome.” In addition to filing an amicus brief, the college administration said in a recent email that they are working to ensure that international students can enroll in at least one in-person course.
It “encourages students to explore the option of independent study courses.” Several professors have announced that they will accept any in-person independent study proposals with students affected by the policy.
The email also claims that students currently abroad who are unable to return to the campus “will be able to study remotely with Middlebury in the fall.”
According to the ISSS, despite the lack of clarity surrounding the policy, there is no immediate effect on students’ visa status.
“The July 6 SEVP announcement is subject to change,” Foley wrote in a recent email sent on July 14. “Please do not make any sudden decisions based on the SEVP guidance.”
Nevertheless, many students remain bitter and frustrated over the policy.
“It is hard to ... not feel afraid, tokenized, forgotten, and reduced to our passports. [The policy] is a painful reminder that we are not like our fellow students,” said Martins.
Editor’s Note: Elsa Korpi ’22 is an Arts and Culture editor for The Campus.
(07/07/20 10:00am)
On Sunday evening of June 28, the entire Middlebury College community — faculty, staff, current students, alumni, retirees and more — received an email from Professor Marissel Hernández-Romero. In it, she details her experiences with racism at the college. She goes on to name specific incidents and people, and ends her letter by encouraging, “all BPoC staying, students, staff and faculty to share their stories without fear and held [sic] the institution accountable for their systemic racism”. It is with those words of encouragement that I am inspired to write this op-ed.
As one of the few Black female faculty at Middlebury College, I’m keenly aware of how White supremacy works in academia and how it has been a contributing factor in the current exodus of Black female faculty and staff. It saddens me to see so many of my friends and incredible scholars leave because of ongoing incidents that left them feeling unsupported, demeaned, silenced and more. It has been infuriating and exhausting to hear their stories or even see these incidents play out in front of me. I have participated in the ongoing work that has been taking place over the last few weeks to address and tackle these issues, and eagerly await the changes that must come.
And, I choose to remain at Middlebury, following my track towards tenure, with plans to continue raising my three daughters here.
Why?
The students. Since the Charles Murray protests, I have been in awe of how successfully our students have been able to articulate their concerns, voice their demands and organize to fight against systemic racism. They regularly inspire me to be a more curious, more thorough scholar and filmmaker. If I ever feel like giving up, their presence encourages me to keep fighting for a more inclusive, equitable future.
The department of Film and Media Culture. It has been so affirming to work in a department that has always been welcoming, unconditionally supportive and actively engaged in being more inclusive in their curriculum and classrooms. I am grateful to be surrounded by such colleagues and excited to continue working with them.
Last but not least, the presence and work of specific professors. These are people who have been consistent in their emotional and professional support from the first day I arrived here with my husband, Professor David Miranda Hardy, and our children in early 2015. They have opened their homes and hearts, giving us and other BIPOC faculty a safe space to land, to feel like we’re “home”. These are faculty that are constantly calling out racism wherever it is, from speaking out against Charles Murray and other public and private racist incidents to using their curriculum to showcase work by BIPOC creators and scholars. Without these faculty, I’m not sure I would still be here.
The faculty I’m talking about are Professor Enrique Garcia (and his wife, Professor Nikolina Dobreva), Professor Marcos Rohena-Madrazo and Professor Patricia Saldarriaga. In the five and a half years that I have been at Middlebury, raising our three Black (biracial) children, navigating what it means to fight anti-Black racism as faculty and parents in a predominantly White state, I am so grateful that they (along with many other faculty and staff I met mainly through the Department of Luso-Hispanic Studies) are here too. They have been an anchor for so many BIPOC faculty. And not just because they cook amazing pernil and provide a space for us to complain about the various micro and macro aggressions we experience — but because they’re also doing the work to fight racism in their classrooms and beyond.
In her email denouncing institutional racism, Professor Marissel Hernández-Romero names specific incidents with these colleagues and my husband to imply that they are part of the institutional racism here at Middlebury.
I strongly denounce that implication. In doing so, I know I risk being accused of negating Professor Hernández-Romero’s experiences or further silencing her. I risk being told, “well that’s your experience, not hers.” But I will continue. Because yes, I am speaking from my own experience. My years and years of close, regular, daily experience with these people have made me — a Black female professor teaching at Middlebury — feel unconditionally and vitally supported.
I am especially compelled to speak out against her claims because there are now calls to devote time and resources to investigating these faculty of color. If Professor Hernández-Romero has the right to share her personal perspective — a perspective that has long-lasting implications, a perspective that has already caused a lot of stress, confusion and heartache — then I, too, have the right to share mine.
I first heard of Professor Hernández-Romero through Enrique Garcia and Marcos Rohena-Madrazo. They were raving about an amazing candidate in their departmental search for a visiting professor. They were excited about what she would be able to bring to the department as a woman of color, a Black woman. As faculty whose scholarship contributed to de-centering Europe/Spain as the epicenter of intellectual contributions to their field (led by the hard work of Patricia Saldarriaga), Professors Garcia and Rohena-Madrazo have offered many classes that center BIPOC voices and were thoroughly invested in giving a platform to non-white scholars.
I later heard more about Professor Hernández-Romero through my husband, Professor Miranda Hardy. Since he was an active voice in the fight against Charles Murray at the time, Professor Hernández-Romero turned to my husband for support whenever she experienced racism.
As someone who had proven himself to be an anti-racist, as the husband of a Black woman and the father to three Black-identifying children, he felt personally affected by her stories about her incidents of racism in the town of Middlebury. And he didn’t just sit with them, he organized to have her stories heard, taken seriously. Perhaps this is why she continued to seek his advice and support whenever she encountered racism.
I name these incidents to counter the implication that they are part of the problem of systemic racism at Middlebury. Over the years, I have seen time and time again only the opposite. From the classroom to personal interactions, they have shown up in ways that have had a significantly positive impact on the lived experiences of me and many BIPOC faculty, staff and students here at Middlebury.
Finally, I must address Professor Hernández-Romero’s claim that the faculty she specifically names in her email are “White-passing”. Perhaps this is an attempt to give more credence to her claims. Perhaps it is just her personal perspective. But by sharing this perspective in her community-wide email, she negates the lived experiences of these people of color. They have all experienced racism here at Middlebury and beyond, precisely because of the way they look. To deny this identity is to deny these experiences, and it is simply wrong.
Although Professor Hernández-Romero purports to be denouncing institutional racism at Middlebury, her email mainly targets individual professors of color who are actively fighting it (all while fielding various micro and macro aggressions in their own personal lives). She has now garnered the attention and support of students who are eager to hold the college accountable for the very real institutional racism that exists, but now it is at the expense of the professors of color that will continue to work here. It is peculiar to say the least, that someone supposedly invested in fighting institutional racism would exit this community with individualized accusations against the very people who are fighting to make this place more inclusive. These serious accusations of racism against people of color at Middlebury cannot exist without scrutiny simply because they are coming from a Black woman.
I end this letter with a heavy heart but empowered with the hope that my voice will also be heard. Because I won’t be silenced either. And I will continue to use my voice to fight structural racism and highlight the voices of people who do the same.
In solidarity,
Natasha Ngaiza
Natasha Ngaiza is an Assistant Professor of Film and Media Culture at Middlebury.
(07/06/20 4:30am)
As the college unveils its fall semester plans, anxieties about making a decision with limited information and a pressing deadline are overshadowing previous uncertainties related to the fall.
While most international students would like to return and reunite with friends, they are also concerned about whether the dramatically altered college experience is worth the long trek back.
Many expressed that their decision would be easier if the college could provide more details on the course schedule, specifying the modes of teaching for individual courses and social distancing protocols.
“I feel the announcement seems more like a guideline instead of a practical plan with enough details,” said Steven Zheng ’23 from China, who is leaning towards taking another remote semester.
The long trek back
With major travel bans in effect and many airlines cancelling their overseas routes, international flights are very limited. While trying to get home in March, some students even faced cancellations after they had booked and paid for their flights.
The cost of travel poses yet another challenge. International tickets are likely to be more expensive, according to a BBC article, so returning to campus is financially impossible for some students. An economy ticket from the United States to Europe in early June cost $2,126 with Delta, according to Forbes. The normal price for this flight would be around $700, according to the same source.
There are also strict border restrictions in place.
According to the CDC, foreign nationals that have been in China, Iran, the European Schengen area, the United Kingdom, Ireland or Brazil during the 14 days before their arrival at the U.S. border may not enter. This means students from these countries would have to quarantine in another country for 14 days before entering the United States.
“I find this process exhausting and not worthwhile,” Zheng said.
International students are currently scheduled to arrive at Middlebury on Aug. 26. Although the college has not specified procedures for international arrival, they will likely have to undergo testing and quarantine on campus until all students complete the arrival testing process.
Despite all these challenges, some students see many benefits of returning to campus.
Many students expressed that in-person learning is likely to be more rewarding. They also value the opportunity to reunite with the community, engage in some extracurricular activities and have a larger selection of courses to choose from, since students can pick between online, in-person and hybrid-style courses.
Some students expressed that they would feel more comfortable given Vermont’s relatively low number of Covid-19 cases. They also hope its low population density would act as a natural defense against the virus.
Students will have to weigh these on campus benefits against the possibility that their classes of choice might be offered strictly online anyway, in addition to stringent quarantine and social distancing measures. The cost and risk of traveling to and from Middlebury, as well as the possibility of a second wave interrupting the fall semester, are also reasons for concern.
“The experience of evacuating as an international student in March was borderline traumatic. I can’t imagine doing that again if a second wave hits,” said Elsa Korpi ’22, who has been in Finland since March. “Daily cases in Finland are down to the tens, while the United States is now starting to hit new records. Voluntarily leaving Europe feels silly.”
She still has not yet decided her next semester plans.
Another remote semester?
For some, remote classes remain the only option given travel difficulties, family situations and challenges with maintaining a student visa during a gap semester.
“As I have high-risk family members back home, it would be painful if I couldn't support or be with them, especially since the health system isn't the best,” said Smith Muhuri ’23 from Kenya, the incoming co-president of the International Student Organization. He still hasn’t decided on his plans but is leaning towards staying on campus, as he has been there since March.
Others, most of whom live in urban settings, believe that staying at home will be a richer experience. They hope to take up internships, part-time jobs and other extracurricular activities in their hometowns while taking online classes.
According to International Student & Scholar Services (ISSS), it is still unclear if students can maintain F-1 student records if they attend classes remotely in the fall. Current regulations restrict F-1 students to taking only 1 course online that counts towards their enrollment requirement to maintain their visa status.
However, ISSS anticipates changes to the requirements that will allow students outside of the United States “to take more than one online course.”
The college will be charging full tuition for students who choose to take a remote semester from home.
The downsides of this choice include a smaller course selection, as many classes will not be offered online because the college discourages professors from “teaching simultaneously in multiple modalities,” according to the Fall 2020 FAQ page.
Muhuri believes that the college should encourage professors to offer both remote and in-person options in order to give international students more choices. Zheng and Korpi would also like to see more online courses and career related-resources for students taking a remote semester.
Muhuri and Zheng expect the remote learning experience to be less fulfilling and more difficult.
“It was just a tiring experience that I had to get up at 4 a.m. in China for my political philosophy classes this semester,” Zheng said.
A semester off
Reluctant to start another remote semester or travel back to the United States for a limited college experience, some have opted for a leave of absence instead.
However, according to ISSS, an interruption in student status can impede a student’s ability to apply for a work visa for jobs and internships in the United States. Reapplication for a student visa may even be necessary, depending on the individual case.
For many, Optional/Curricular Practical Training (OPT/CPT) and student visa complications are major reasons for deciding against a semester off.
“I would really appreciate it if schools push the government to loosen the qualification for OPT,” said Zheng. “I will be more likely to gap [a semester] if so.”
Scott Li ’23 from China is taking a semester off. He plans to do an internship and spend one to two months road tripping to Western China.
Despite his decision, Li supports the college’s plan for the fall semester and looks forward to returning next spring.
“I'm sure [the college] carefully balanced everything and tried their best to come up with what's best for everyone,” Li said. “It's just that this is really a tough time, and it's nobody's fault. Everybody should keep staying positive.”
The deadline to apply for a fall leave of absence is July 6.
However, students will get a full tuition refund if they withdraw before the semester starts according to the college’s refund policy.
How can the college help?
“There really is no good option. A remote semester feels like a missed learning opportunity, but I also have plans after undergrad that I wouldn’t want to delay,” Korpi said.
International students such as Muhuri and Zheng believe more details on the modalities of courses offered will help them make the best decision for next fall. According to the FAQ page, the college is planning to announce its course scheduling details in late July after professors plan their courses.
The college should also provide more details on how clubs would run and whether athletic facilities would remain open, according to Li.
Muhuri and Zheng also have concerns regarding how the pandemic would worsen the inequality on campus affecting international minorities.
“I don’t want to be left behind simply because I cannot be physically present on campus as an international student,” said Zheng.
ISSS plans to offer Zoom meet-ups or webinars this summer. It is also collaborating with the Admissions Office on virtual events with incoming international students to discuss their transition to campus.
“There are no guarantees regarding how this will all work out,” said Kathy Foley, associate dean and director of ISSS. “Fortunately, there are many dedicated faculty and staff colleagues on our campus who are doing everything they can to create a positive and workable experience for students to resume their studies in the fall.”
Editor’s Note: Elsa Korpi ’22 is an Arts and Culture editor for The Campus.
(07/06/20 4:18am)
President Patton acknowledged departed professor Marissel Hernández-Romero’s email and echoed the statement sent by Chief Diversity Officer Miguel Fernández
Face masks will be mandated, and the college will install Plexiglass barriers, visual reminders, hand sanitizer stations and other measures to minimize risk
The July 6 deadline is non-binding, and students who withdraw before the start of the semester will be able to receive a full refund and preserve their financial aid eligibility
Spaces will be reconfigured to adhere to “physical distancing” guidelines
Administrators redoubled their commitment to racial equity after SGA Vice President Roni Lezama drew their attention to a question from Joel Machado ’22
Panelists from the Student Leadership Group (SLG) and other administrative offices shared an overview of the school’s plans for fall semester during a June 29 student Town Hall hosted by the Student Government Association (SGA). Afterward, panelists answered students’ specific questions, some pre-submitted and others asked live via chat. SGA President John Schurer ’21, SGA Co-Vice President Sophia Lundberg ’21.5 and SGA Co-Vice President Roni Lezama ’21 moderated the Town Hall.
The letter
Before the presentations began, President Laurie Patton addressed the June 28 email from departed professor Marissel Hernández-Romero and its larger import as a representation of the pervasive presence of racism on campus. President Patton reaffirmed the statement emailed to the student body earlier in the day by Chief Diversity Officer Miguel Fernández, acknowledging Middlebury’s entrenched, underlying culture of racism, the harm caused to Hernández-Romero, as well as all community members of color, and the urgent need to adequately address these issues with anti-racist initiatives.
“Because we must be focused on action, we are working now on a strategic plan… for diversity, equity and inclusion that is focused on a number of different issues, [including], particularly in this moment, anti-black racism,” Patton said.
Though unable to comment on the specifics of individual incidents mentioned in Hernández-Romero’s email because of due process and confidentiality requirements, Patton stated that each case will be investigated.
She also reiterated that the email was removed from servers in order to prevent any additional harm caused by potential misuse of the “reply all” function, such as responses insulting Hernández-Romero or making light of her experiences. However, Patton recognized that the decision to remove the email prevented Hernández-Romero from being heard and had its own negative impact.
Following President Patton’s introductory remarks, panelists shared plans for campus life during the pandemic.
Health and Safety
To ensure the health and safety of the community, ResLife staff, Public Safety, faculty and staff are being trained to handle the new challenges posed by Covid-19 on campus and to support health protocols.
Middlebury has also signed a contract with the Broad Institute in Cambridge, a testing company that uses a less-invasive anterior nares swab (not a nasopharyngeal swab, which goes deep into the back of the nose). In addition, a contact-tracing app is currently being tested for use in the fall.
Face coverings will “absolutely” be required, so Environmental Health and Safety Coordinator Jen Kazmierczak recommends finding a fit most comfortable before returning to campus. “Cloth face coverings should not be considered PPE (personal protective equipment),” added Kazmierczak, who clarified that face masks are a public health measure necessary to protect others, not just an optional protection for oneself.
The college plans to provide two cloth face masks to each student. In addition, administrators are also looking into the possibility of providing clear face coverings for professors to accommodate hearing-impaired students.
The college is preparing to bolster safety in a number of ways, including the installation of directional arrows and other visual reminders to maintain distancing. The college will also install Plexiglas barriers and hand sanitizer stations, as well as providing materials for cleaning and disinfecting.
Once on campus, there will be daily health checks, and students will be required to stay in their rooms if sick. The administration did not elaborate on how health checks will be performed.
A finalized health pledge will be sent to all students and their families. “We are looking at both the internal work that a student needs to do to keep themselves healthy, as well as the ways in which, in our environment, we can be accountable for keeping each other healthy,” Patton said.
Clear expectations of adherence to health protocols will be communicated pre-arrival, along with a rubric outlining what consequences will be administered for specific violations of the protocol. Depending on the seriousness of and level of risk created by the violation, consequences may range from educational sanctions to dismissal from campus housing.
Dr. Mark Peluso, medical director of Parton Health Services, noted that there is no specific threshold of cases that will trigger an evacuation mid-semester. Additionally, because such a measure will be dependent upon local and national data, an evacuation would not be sudden but instead would follow a rolling-back of phases. While the college will aim to send as many students home as possible, requests for exceptions will be possible. “We understand it will not be realistic for everyone to evacuate campus,” said Peluso.
Academic Affairs
The college plans to use the data from July 6 — the deadline for students to request a leave of absence for the fall semester — to create the final course schedule, which they intend to release by the third week of July. All class descriptions will include their modality.
Students who choose to withdraw after the July 6 deadline but before the beginning of the semester will be entitled to a refund and will preserve their financial aid eligibility.
Provost Jeff Cason warned students to prepare for the possibility of all courses returning to the online format as needed with the progression of the semester, but he emphasized that professors are working extensively with DLINQ to address the challenges students faced during the spring semester as a result of the emergency transition to virtual learning.
“Online learning is not inferior to in-person learning,” said Cason, assuring webinar attendees that the college is working diligently to create support systems and other mechanisms to provide the resources and maintain the opportunity for close faculty-student relationships. These initiatives aim to nullify the inequities exacerbated by online learning.
Considering the financial strain caused by the pandemic, many students are wondering if Student Financial Services (SFS) plans on adjusting packages accordingly. Kim Downs-Burns, associate vice president of SFS, noted that the office has begun awarding packages via BannerWeb and will continue to do so. She encouraged students to call SFS with any questions. Additionally, there will be student employment opportunities throughout the semester.
Student Life
Kazmierczak noted that the college is emphasizing the term “physical distancing” in the place of “social distancing” as a representation of their commitment to still provide opportunities for meaningful social interaction this semester.
Common spaces will be open in residential and other areas but at dramatically reduced capacity. Furniture in most spaces will be reorganized to ensure physical distancing. “We recognize that students need to get out of their rooms,” said Dean of Students Derek Doucet.
When asked about the reality of traditional student social life existing this semester, Doucet responded that all gatherings will need to adhere to physical distancing guidelines, capacity limits and face-covering requirements. In other words, sweaty Atwater parties cannot happen. Doucet suggested MCAB and SGA work to “think outside the box” to reimagine social life, as parties are going to look “pretty darn different.”
The Dining Services team will communicate a phased dining plan to students later this summer and “are considering Grille takeout even in phase one.”
The Athletic Center will also follow a phased approach in regards to increasing capacity limits in facilities, according to Director of Athletics Erin Quinn.
In response to a question about Middlebury’s plan to improve its lack of sufficient counseling services, a problem that predated the Covid-19 pandemic, Executive Director of Parton Health Services Gus Jordan said that the college is working to supplement the existing staff with a telehealth company that will provide free access to psychologists online for up to 12 sessions. The service will be accessible whether students choose to return to campus or not, and Jordan is “confident it will meet demand.”
There will be another opportunity this summer to retrieve any belongings left behind for students who choose not to return in the fall. For those unable to travel to campus, the school has storage space available.
Kathy Foley, associate dean and director of the International Student and Scholar Services (ISSS) office, stated that an email with drop-in hours this week and FAQs answers will be sent shortly. Though there is little information available from the U.S. government about travel restrictions, international students should respond to the July 6 form to let the college know of their intentions should entry into the country be possible by the fall.
Commitment to racial justice
Toward the end of the Town Hall, Co-Vice President Roni Lezama brought the administration’s focus to a question from Joel Machado ’22. Machado had entered his submission immediately after the chat function was enabled.
“...Since President Patton at the beginning of this Town Hall identified Covid-19 and racism as two of the biggest crises of our time, we should all be on the same page in the understanding that Middlebury MUST commit the same energy toward tackling both problems,” the question read. “Will the Senior Leadership Group commit to holding a Town Hall meeting like this one to address the specific campus policy adaptations and long term actions the college will be taking to address systemic racism?”
President Patton thanked Machado for his question and said she is “eager to share thoughts and plans.” She noted that the administration is working on a strategic antiracist plan in contingency with the Center for the Comparative Study of Race and Ethnicity, the SGA, campus cultural organizations and faculty. The five-year plan will draw on feedback from last year’s campus climate external review to bolster diversity, equity and inclusion. Patton thanked students for the many good ideas they have already shared.
Some of the college’s priorities include providing support for Black Studies and Black professors, facilitating better interactions between students of color (particularly Black students) and the administration, as well as decolonizing the curriculum department by department.
Additionally, Patton noted a continued commitment to “intensive fundraising in this area.” She also reaffirmed the college’s focus on the Twilight Project, which will “commission artistic performances and support academic research that confronts Middlebury’s historic treatment of underrepresented and excluded groups.”
Fernández agreed that a separate Town Hall will be necessary to adequately address the topic of racism at Middlebury and that hearing students’ perspectives is important. The college will hold a forum with further information on their plans in late August, at which point students will have the opportunity to give more constructive feedback.
Looking ahead
Although administrators offered initial estimations of how the fall semester will unfold, Doucet noted that these plans are highly flexible and dependent upon both the internal success of keeping campus free from infections and outside conditions locally and statewide. Middlebury will continue its close collaboration with Vermont health officials, and the ability to move into more open phases will be heavily dependent upon state guidelines.
As of now, Vermont is far below the national average of daily rates of new infections, and, according to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, the state is on track to have fewer than 10 new cases per day in September and October.
“We are optimistic,” said Doucet about the possibility of lifting restrictions to permit travel into downtown Middlebury and possibly throughout the state as well. However, this progress is contingent upon having confidence in community members to hold one another accountable and take personal responsibility for the benefit of everyone, according to Doucet.
The college will continue to update the FAQ page, and a mutual information database created by students is also available.
(06/22/20 8:22pm)
This is a developing story and will be updated accordingly.
Middlebury expects to invite most students back for an on campus fall semester; September 8 will be the first day of class and the first batch of returning students will arrive on August 18
Students will be required to quarantine before their return and the college will test all students upon arrival
Professors can decide to offer their courses in an in-person, remote or hybrid capacity, and the college expects approximately one-third of classes to be conducted online
Student access cards will only open the residence that they live in, and the academic buildings they need to access
Staff who can work from home will likely continue to do so, while those who work closely with students must receive approval to return to campus
Parties and gatherings must not exceed a 25-person limit and must take place where physical distancing is possible
Middlebury will reopen its campus to students, faculty and staff in the fall with certain precautions, according to a copy of the college announcement shared with The Campus. The College plans to welcome students back, with classes beginning on September 8 for a 12-week semester, which will continue without interruption until Thanksgiving Break, before a transition to remote learning. The cost of attendance remains unchanged.
With the removal of October Break, November 20 will be the last day of in-person classes. Students will not be allowed to return to campus, with classes and exams following Thanksgiving break held in a remote capacity. The statuses of J-term and the spring semester remain unclear.
Students will be required to quarantine before and after they return to campus, and will be tested for Covid-19 upon their arrival in Middlebury. Students will return at staggered start times, and will have to begin quarantining 14 days prior to their planned arrival date; they will be expected to maintain safe practices during their travel to campus.
There will be three start times: First@Midd peer leaders, ISSS PALS and other student leaders will arrive August 18; new students, transfers, international students and fall athletes (if athletics are approved) will arrive August 26; the remaining students will be permitted to return on August 28.
While many classes will be offered in-person, others will be offered remotely or in a hybrid capacity, even as students live on campus. The college expects roughly a third of classes — approximately 175 of 530 courses — to be taught remotely. Professors will have the opportunity to choose whether they teach online, in-person or using a combination of the two. Students will be informed of which courses are offered in which format before course registration.
Students will be tested for Covid-19 upon their arrival on campus, and again after seven days. They will have to remain in isolation in their rooms for roughly 24 hours until results are available — and will only be allowed to leave to use the bathroom, to collect meals from a delivery point and in the case of medical emergencies.
If students test negative, they will then be ‘quarantined’ to campus, and can move about while following safety protocols. Off-campus students will quarantine in their off-campus housing.
Students who test positive will be isolated in Munford House and be monitored by health professionals.
Students and staff will have to adhere to a variety of health protocols throughout the semester as well, including undergoing Covid-19 symptom pre-screening each day and wearing face coverings whenever possible. The college is planning to provide cloth face coverings for all students.
The announcement mentions that students will live in singles and doubles, but that the school, “will share more information with students about room draw and housing accommodations in a separate communication.” Student access cards will only open the residence that students live in, and the academic buildings they need access. Students who live in off-campus residences must adhere to the same guidelines as those who live on campus.
Middlebury plans to increase its capacity for mental health services including counseling as well as nutritional, medical and psychiatric services by contracting with a telehealth company which will aid students both on and off campus.
Dining will progress in three phases, the first of which requires that each student be assigned to one dining hall and provided with to-go meals only. While indoor seating will be prohibited, there will be limited outdoor tent space in some areas. Each dining hall will have the same menu and abide by a one-way traffic format, and all meals will be prepared by dining staff.
The announcement includes initial restrictions and monitoring of off-campus travel, for which guidelines are being developed and will vary depending on the travel destination. On-campus speakers and visitors will also be severely limited — if they are permitted at all — and required to abide by both college and state health guidelines. Students will not be allowed to have any personal guests, except for a single person who will be allowed to assist them at move-in.
The announcement notes that the college, “will not be able to organize large-scale events in person,” although more specific announcements about dining, fitness and other activities and events will be released later in the summer. The school will also continue to make announcements about the status of sports and extracurricular activities through the summer.
As for parties, “At present … group gatherings of up to 25 people are permitted, though this could change at any time. Any such gatherings must be scheduled in spaces large enough to allow adequate physical distancing.”
Off-campus travel to the town of Middlebury, trails, lakes and other destinations will be prohibited until all students have completed the first two rounds of testing, after which restrictions may be relaxed depending on student behavior.
While staff who are able to work from home will continue to do so, those whose work is better completed on campus will undergo an approval process to work in modified, socially distant office spaces.
Bowdoin, one of Middlebury’s peers, announced earlier today that the college will open its doors in the fall, but only to certain students — first-years, transfer students, residential life staff and senior honors students who require Bowdoin’s facilities to complete their projects. Almost all classes will be taught in a remote capacity. Students who take a voluntary leave of absence will need to seek readmission to continue their studies at Bowdoin.
Although Middlebury does not expect to have to evacuate students mid-semester, Vermont health guidelines maintain that all students should be prepared to evacuate or go into lockdown at any time.
Students, both returning and newly admitted, will now have until July 6, two weeks from today, to make a decision about whether they want to take a leave of absence. While Middlebury maintains that those who choose to do so will be welcomed back, their return date may be restricted by housing limitations. Students will receive a full refund as long as they withdraw before the semester begins.
(06/18/20 6:53pm)
Even if Middlebury students return to campus in the fall, it will be to a college transformed in many ways by safety measures and changes related to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Administrators plan to announce a blueprint for next year on Monday, June 22, following colleges across the nation that have made transformative decisions about the fall semesters of their schools. On June 8, President Laurie Patton and Middlebury College Director of Health Services Mark Peluso published a letter in the Addison County Independent addressing the local community about their efforts and intentions regarding the return of students.
This week, screenshots of an email supposedly outlining a plan for fall were widely shared among students, although Sarah Ray, director of media relations, said that the plans detailed in that email cannot be confirmed and that the college will not make any official announcement until next Monday.
Meanwhile, it is clear that no matter what that announcement contains, Middlebury students will see a drastically different fall semester. “There is no scenario in which Fall 2020 will look like Fall 2019,” Provost Jeff Cason said in an email to The Campus.
At a Staff Council meeting on May 20, Patton shared that if a return to campus does occur, she is committed to bringing back as many students as possible. However, she noted, “In Vermont, that will probably not be the number of students we normally have because of a combination of things: summer melt in students depositing, those who are immunocompromised [and] international students because of visa challenges.”
Many of the Schools Abroad, including Germany, France, Brazil, Chile, India and Italy, have already officially been canceled for the fall. Spain will be in operation, while many others are still pending decisions.
Before the college officially reveals whether the Vermont campus will operate remotely or in-person next fall, here’s a look at how life at Middlebury could be different in a coronavirus-altered world.
Health Guidelines
One condition of the campus reopening this fall is the college’s ability to test every single student when they arrive at Middlebury, according to an announcement made by Patton at the May 20 Staff Council town hall.
The college will also need to be capable of isolating and quarantining students who test positive and of continuing testing throughout the semester.
“We have every expectation of being able to test every student upon their return to campus,” Cason said. “The cost is still to be determined.”
In their Addison Independent article, Patton and Peluso state that mandated contract tracing will also be a part of the health plan. They also mention that testing will occur in multiple rounds and that students will need to quarantine before and after traveling to campus.
Other health measures like daily temperature checks, a health pledge and a social distancing commitment may be required of students. The health communications and student life teams are currently designing the health pledge.
Students will also need to agree to sign a personal assumption of risk document, according to Patton.
“To date, in order to be equipped in advance, we have secured a high-volume testing supplier, are close to securing a [personal protective equipment] (PPE) contract, and have excellent options for contact tracing involving the Vermont Department of Health as well as other possible online solutions, which we are vetting now to ensure that they are effective while also maintaining privacy,” Patton and Peluso wrote.
Classroom procedures
“It’s likely that a percentage of our classes will be remote,” Patton said at the town hall. Many of the offices that students may regularly visit, she noted, may continue to operate remotely.
According to Cason, all students will “have courses that will be in person and remote.”
“In person classes will be very different because we will have to have social distancing protocols in place, so classes will need to have fewer students in them,” he said.
“Some [faculty] will teach remotely because of their own health risk factors. Other faculty will teach remotely, or in a hybrid fashion, because it will make sense for them to do that pedagogically,” Cason said.
In the case that students return to campus in the fall, he said, students will be informed of which classes will be in-person and which ones will still be remote. He noted that students who do not return to campus but are enrolled will have priority access to remote-only courses.
Residential life
A safe return to campus will likely involve a rethinking of residential spaces.
“We need to house students in ways that maximize social distancing and minimize spread,” Patton said at the town hall. “We will probably need to provide additional housing that may spread us out farther.”
Patton mentioned that, if Middlebury does reopen, the college would likely have fewer students on campus overall this fall.
“Many of our students will probably be living in singles,” Patton said. She also mentioned “eating in a socially distanced way” and that the college would need to reconcile the communal dining hall system and Vermont health guidelines regarding congregation.
A Campus analysis of currently available residential spaces suggests that, in Spring 2020, there were roughly 2,000 total residential rooms on campus open to students — including singles, doubles and triples. This does not account for rooms like lounges that could potentially be converted to housing.
This means that there were about 2,000 single-occupancy options on campus. In Spring, there were roughly 2,324 students living on campus.
In April of this year, the college addressed its plans to house an increased volume of students — a response to a presumed decrease in students studying abroad — by allowing students to live in properties owned by the college but not currently occupied by students and allowing more students to live off campus.
“We’re still working through use of communal spaces, but enhanced cleaning and sanitation regimens will certainly be in place, as will clear and specific instructions and expectations for how to share such spaces appropriately,” Doucet said. “In all cases, we’ll be guided by the latest public health information.”
Travel, visitors and events
According to Cason, visiting campus next fall would be limited.
“We are likely to have a dramatically reduced number of visitors to campus,” Cason said. “We are also going to need to rely on guidance from the State of Vermont when it comes to restrictions on the number of people who can be in the room at a time.”
It is unclear how exactly this will affect events like concerts, performances and guest lectures, although the current Vermont health guidelines allow a maximum gathering size of 25 people.
Patton and Peluso’s article states that part of a safe return will include “restrictions on travel and visitors, limiting gatherings according to Vermont guidance, social distancing protocols and other preventive measures to reduce the risk of infection, and an evacuation plan.”
The leaked email
An email disseminated among students and community members throughout this week appeared to outline certain protocols for next semester and seemed to suggest a return to campus. Screenshots of the email listed a fully-remote J-Term, a contract that would not allow students to leave campus and a plan to finish the in-person semester before Thanksgiving break as facets of a safe fall semester plan.
Sarah Ray says that the college considers these screenshots to contain “inaccurate information.”
“As we have stated before, Middlebury will release its plans on Monday, June 22. These official plans will be the result of exhaustive research and continual consultation with authorities and expert advisers, including the Vermont Department of Health, Governor Scott’s office, the CDC, and others,” Ray said in an email to The Campus. “Our plans are being informed by perspectives of Middlebury stakeholders through an inclusive process.”
Leaves of absence and enrollment
Uncertainty about next year has brought about an increase in student interest in taking a semester off, according to Doucet. A May 27 email from the Dean of Students revealed that those hoping to take a leave of absence will have to make that decision by July 6, two weeks after the college’s scheduled announcement of a roadmap for the fall semester.
“It’s pretty clear students and families just want to understand their options, so a proactive communication seemed like the best approach,” Doucet said of the decision to announce the option to students.
“The policy on leaves of absence hasn’t changed,” Doucet said. “The only difference from typical years is that we’re asking students to notify us of their intent to take a leave by July 6 to allow us some time to plan accordingly.”
“Inquiries about taking a gap year or deferring to enter with the Feb class have been slightly higher this year, although our official number of approved requests is in line with previous years as of this week,” Nicole Curvin, dean of admissions, said.
Curvin said that the target for incoming students is 640 for Regs and 110 for Febs — “As of today, our incoming deposits are above these targets to hopefully account for any melt that we experience through the summer.”
She cited Covid-19 and concerns about policing and race relations as topics that have been on the minds of incoming international students. Economic hardship as a result of the pandemic, she said, is a major consideration of incoming domestic students.
Incoming students also have until the July 6 deadline to defer for a semester or year.
Digital Director Benjy Renton contributed reporting.
(06/15/20 10:00am)
This letter was previously sent to President Laurie Patton, members of the Senior Leadership Group, and the Middlebury College community in response to an email President Patton sent on May 31 to the members of the Middlebury Community. Since then, she has responded to this letter in an email sent on June 5. Parts of this letter have been lightly edited to comply with The Campus’ style guidelines.
Spurred by the momentum of the nationwide uprising against racial injustice, we felt compelled to create a call to action for the Middlebury administration. We sent an email in direct response to the tone-deaf statement issued by the Office of the President on May 31. However, that statement is just the tip of the iceberg of the institutionalized oppression faced by Black students on campus. Ultimately, we want to spark a collaborative dialogue about creating a Middlebury community that is not only more inclusive, but more equitable. To voice solidarity, you can fill out our petition of support linked here.
To President Patton, members of the Senior Leadership Group, and Middlebury College community members,
“Black Lives Matter”
This statement is plain and simple, and its overcomplication can cause it to become diluted. Furthermore, discussion of the current protests responding to police brutality can be harmful if done without proper care, as demonstrated in the May 31 message from the Office of the President. This message is an example of how needlessly overcomplicated discussions about the state of our nation have understated today’s current reality and in doing so, disappointed Black members of Middlebury’s community.
To name a few of the offenses in the message sent:
The false equivalence of Covid-19 and racism
The conflation of Covid-19 — a disease that afflicts its victims arbitrarily and that has been disproportionately affecting Black and minority communities that have historically been medically neglected — and racism — which derives from the concerted effort of those who hold privilege to work against those who don’t— is an incredible macro-aggression. The hardships one endures because of racism versus Covid-19 are vastly different because Covid-19 infection is largely by circumstance while racism is a conscious decision. To abdicate responsibility for intentional actions is yet another instance of the College’s neglect for its Black students, by way of not acknowledging the difference between choices and circumstance. Additionally, the current pervasive, institutionalized racism affecting America deserves its own separate email, especially when Covid-19 has been addressed by the Office of the President multiple times, while racism and its impact on Black individuals has not. In attempting to use fluffy and soft language, such as the comparison between a virus and violent oppression, the message dances around the severity of our nation's issue of systemic racism, leaving Black readers without any true solace.
The notion that racism is a new concept
Racism did not appear recently as the email from the statement suggests. In the email sent by the Office of the President, the following was stated: “In light of this recent death and others (Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor), our country is again engulfed in anger and protest as the plague of racism infects the early days of our American summer.” This statement panders to the privileged perspective that White Americans have been inconvenienced by being forced to confront the reality of racism as summer approaches. White supremacy was the foundation that America was built upon, and racism is an ingrained part of the lives of Black people in America. Black students face that reality every day, both on and off campus. To suggest it is a new circumstance makes light of this harsh reality for the Black community.
The hypocrisy associated with Middlebury’s verbal allegiance to racial equity but lack of action
The claim that Middlebury seeks to create a safe space for collaboration and a campus against racism directly contradicts the College’s actions. We recently invited Charles Murray to campus for a third time to discuss his racially offensive and scientifically baseless book, "Human Diversity: The Biology of Gender, Race, and Class," in which he once again postulates a similar ideology as his earlier racist novel, "The Bell Curve.” The physical and psychological violence that Charles Murray and his visits have disproportionately inflicted upon the Black population of Middlebury College was never fully addressed, nor was there any real community reconciliation. Furthermore, the College’s intention to hire outside “security” is incredibly problematic given the traumatic history of Black individuals being targeted by police, security and law enforcement in an often fatal manner.
Failing to specifically support Black community members that are disproportionately impacted by this situation
The ambiguity in supporting specifically Black staff and students is incredibly problematic in its negation of the difference between Black people and all people of color. In saying, “This is an anxious and difficult time, particularly for students, staff, and faculty of color,” this message reduces the specific struggles of Black individuals in our community who are disproportionately impacted by institutionalized racism. It does our community a disservice to conflate the oppression faced by Black people with that faced by all people of color. Our institution should not hesitate to proclaim that #BlackLivesMatter. Failing to do so resembles that of an #AllLivesMatter approach by creating a sense of erasure of Black issues. This is yet another instance of the struggles of Black communities seemingly being negated. It is important that we recognize how other marginalized communities are affected by systems of oppression, but at this time, it is necessary we hold space for and honor Black lives specifically.
The disturbing and insensitive use of air as a metaphor
The statement claims that “in a world beset by two plagues, we are gasping for air.” This use of air as a metaphor, here and throughout the message, is grossly offensive, given that George Floyd’s (and before him, Eric Garner’s) final words were “I can’t breathe.” This is deeply disturbing given that Floyd was needlessly asphyxiated for nearly nine minutes. Their juxtaposition is deeply hurtful and strips away the reality and significance of Floyd’s death. Saying "we are gasping for air" begins to minimize the experience of Black people who have both literally had their breath taken away by police brutality and are at a higher risk of infection of Covid-19. There is a certain level of privilege held by many in the Middlebury community, who are at lower risk of contracting Covid-19 and are able to avoid police brutality; the use of this literary device illustrates such ignorant privilege. To reiterate, Covid-19 and police brutality are not one in the same, and though the message is not the first instance where they are metaphorically compared, any case of such comparison is deeply offensive and cannot be silently accepted.
This statement hardly scratches the surface of the harm done to Middlebury’s Black students. This is not the first time that damage has been inflicted on our community. In just the past few years wherein institutional memory can guide us, Middlebury College has been complicit in allowing pervasive racism to exist on our campus. We hope the following instances will be properly recognized:
In 2016, the SGA passed a resolution denouncing insensitive comments made during the Jan. 18 Martin Luther King Today event. This resolution was not acted upon and emails such as the one sent on May 31 mirror the insensitivity illustrated four years ago.
In 2016, the Middlebury SGA and BSU Resolution Supporting Black Lives Matter sparked conversation within the Senior Leadership Group (SLG) regarding how Black students can exist on Middlebury’s campus without fear of discrimination. These conversations died out until students brought the conversation to the forefront again (i.e. 2019’s Thirteen Proposals for Community Healing).
In 2017, the SGA Resolution to Support Black and Minority Students was passed, but many of the items outlined were inadequately implemented (specifically items two, four, five, six (a), seven, and eight).
In 2017, the invitation of Charles Murray to discuss his racially charged pseudoscience, his introduction to the community by President Patton and the ensuing reactions towards students of color, including Black individuals, all marked a form of psychological violence on communities of color.
In 2018 and 2019, the administration failed to properly and definitively denounce the actions of faculty distributing racially insensitive and offensive course material (e.g. the original Fall 2018 chemistry exam from a professor that featured questions with racist and antisemetic undertones and the Spring 2019 powerpoint “joke” surrounding the transatlantic slave trade).
In 2019, Middlebury’s invitation of Ryszard Legutko — who opposes the civil rights of a multitude of identities, including Black identifying individuals — marked yet another offense.
In 2020, the re-invitation of Charles Murray to discuss his newest iteration of racist pseudoscience and a lack of empathy or resources provided for Black (and POC) students was another institutional action of unprovoked disrespect for Middlebury’s Black community.
This list could go on. We hope that by now we have made clear the blatant hypocrisy and performativity of President Patton’s statement given the College’s history of perpetuating racial injustice. The habitual dereliction of duty and meaningful action has become characteristic of Middlebury College as an institution. We need definitive and immediate action to be taken to put Middlebury on a more appropriate course of supporting its Black students, as well as those from other marginalized backgrounds. We agree that it is necessary to “collaborate with all members of our community to act against racism and become accountable for the work that needs to be done." In the spirit of working together to build a more equitable and aware community, we believe the following actions would be highly beneficial for the healing of Middlebury’s Black students. Find them below:
Immediate Actions:
We ask that an all-community email be sent out apologizing for the harm — both past and current — inflicted upon the Black community of Middlebury College by the May 31 email and subsequent social media posts. We believe that this will begin to ease tensions during this tumultuous time for Black people everywhere, including Black students.
For this email to be successful, we suggest the College formally denounce the racism and harm caused by certain problematic faculty, staff and speakers — in at least all of the aforementioned instances — as they have left wounds which are still open within Middlebury’s Black community.
Additionally, that students be provided with tangible actions Middlebury will take in order to ensure the safety and fair treatment of Black community members when returning to campus in a state where the population is over 90 percent white.
We ask for a separate all-community email which provides resources specifically for Black community members to utilize during this time in which our lives are constantly threatened with violence from national institutions.
We ask for a third all-community email which provides resources for non-Black community members that will empower them to become better allies of Black students, both on and off campus.
These are only beginning steps in repairing the damage caused by the historical actions and inaction taken by Middlebury. Please consider the depth of this situation and the importance of each student’s valuable experience while Black at this institution.
We recognize that Middlebury will not be able to immediately fix all of these disparities. Nevertheless, we ask that this outreach be considered as a starting point for reparations.
With that in mind, the following proposals are potential solutions to hardships faced in the past and present by Black students, other students of color and the cultural organizations that represent them. We hope these solutions will spark critical conversations with the College Administration about the improvement of the treatment of students of marginalized backgrounds, especially those who are Black.
Suggested Actions to Take for the 2020-2021 School Year:
We ask for the implementation of a program in which cultural organizations will have collectively appointed correspondents (not from the same organization), self-selected by our memberships to engage in regular meetings with the Senior Leadership Group of the College, with regularity occurring at a minimum of three times a semester.
We ask that Middlebury designate a student or faculty member (or multiple students/faculty) who will specifically represent communities of color within the Board of Trustee meetings with the College administration.
There comes a time at which Black voices become tired of being silenced; it is unfortunate that we have reached that point in time with Middlebury College. We await your timely response and are hopeful that we will be able to work together to create positive change for marginalized students on campus.
Cordially,
Concerned Students of Middlebury College
Endorsed By:
Black Student Union
Distinguished Men of Color
Womxn of Color
PALANA Social House
UMOJA
ALIANZA Latinoamericana y Caribeña
International Student Organization (ISO)
JUNTOS
Queer and Trans People of Color (QTPOC)
Queers and Allies
Feminist Action at Middlebury (FAM)
Underrepresented in STEM (UR-STEM)
Verbal Onslaught
This letter was written by Concerned Students of Middlebury College, whose membership is composed of Myles Maxie ’22, Gifty Atanga ’23, Charice Lawrence ’23, Andrés Oyaga ’23, Daleelah Saleh ’23, Jarlenys Mendez ’23, and Kaitlyn Velazquez ’23. The letter was signed by student organizations in support of their message. For more information, click here.
(06/04/20 5:24am)
We sent students a survey last week asking some of the questions that have continually shaped our lives since March 10.
From the data collected, we learned that:
Most students felt that professors were understanding. Ninety percent of surveyed students were satisfied with professors’ accommodations through remote learning.
Classes could get a lot smaller if we remain remote this fall, as 58% of students would elect to take a leave of absence if Middlebury chooses to remain fully-remote during that term.
The pandemic has not been kind to Middlebury students’ job opportunities. Sixty two percent of surveyed students at one point had a job or internship that was cancelled due to the pandemic.
Few people opted in to credit/no credit. In the wake of the failed movement for mandatory credit/no credit grading, 63% of respondents took all of their spring classes for letter grades.
At the end of the survey, we also gave students the chance to anonymously share opinions or anecdotes about experiences in quarantine. We’re really glad we did so — the responses you provided were at turns poignant, urgent and funny, and all of them capture the bizarre reality we’re living through. These anonymous opinions have been included in this article in places where they complement our findings expressed through data visualization.
General demographics
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Of the roughly 2,500 Middlebury students who were sent the survey, 583 — roughly a quarter — participated. Respondents were split fairly evenly across class years, with a slight majority of respondents coming from the classes of 2021 and ’21.5. (Though they will not be enrolled this fall, members of the class of 2020 were invited to complete the survey because of their perspectives on the spring semester and experience graduating during the pandemic).
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Reflecting the demographic reality of the college’s student body, a majority of respondents identified as white. Ten percent, or 58, respondents identified as international students.
Spring semester and summer
Mental health during remote spring semester
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A majority of students — 64% of respondents — reported having experienced mental health-related challenges during the course of their spring semester. Twenty-five percent reported knowing where to go to get virtual mental health support from the college, 27% said they did not know where to access care and the remaining 47% reported being “somewhat” aware of how to seek care.
But the logistical realities of being at home with parents, siblings and other family posed challenges for some students to seek help. “As someone who struggles with mental health, it's a lot harder to reach out for help when I'm at home and I feel at higher risk for falling into really bad lows and having no one around to help,” one student wrote.
“One challenge that I have faced has been less mental health problems myself,” a student wrote in their anecdotal response, “but more caring for family members struggling with their mental health.”
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Students reported feeling high levels of stress over uncertainty of life during the pandemic, as well as over jobs, relationships, academics, family life and home life. Often, multiple demands intersected to create unique challenges to tackling remote learning from home.
“Mother lost her job, father might too,” a student wrote. “Having everyone under the same roof in a small house has driven my parents to the brink of divorce.”
Approval rating of communication by college entities since March 10
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Students generally approved or were ambivalent about communication methods from college entities such as Schools Abroad, Parton counseling and the administration. However, several anecdotal responses expressed frustrations with a lack of solicitation of student input on the part of the college throughout the spring.
“Many other schools are hosting webinars and Zoom calls explaining directly to students what options they are considering in the fall,” one student wrote. “Middlebury has not told us the options and therefore there are more rumors/speculations. Even if the answer is ‘we don't know yet - here are some options,’ [that would be] better than barely hearing from them at all.”
Covid-19 infection among family, acquaintances and community
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Nine Middlebury students responded as having tested positive for Covid-19. Forty percent reported knowing a friend who had tested positive, and another 41% responded as not knowing anyone who had tested positive.
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Almost half — 48% — of students reported high levels of concern over viral transmission in their communities, while roughly 12% reported low levels of concern in their communities.
Opinions on spring remote academic programming
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A vast majority of respondents — 91% — reported professors being flexible in adjusting to the demands of remote learning. “Two of my professors were amazing — completely accommodating and conscious of the circumstances,” one student wrote. However, anecdotal responses saw many students report frustrations with how professors adjusted syllabi or failed to provide opportunities for asynchronous learning.
Many students wrote that some professors were patient and accommodating while others approached the semester in starkly different ways.
“I felt like most of the concessions certain professors claimed were just talk,” one student wrote. “One of my professors did not cut the workload at all and just added the material from the week we missed onto the post-break semester.”
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Despite high rates of approval for professors’ levels of accommodation, 64% of students reported that their academic experience this spring was at least “generally” impaired amid the adjustment to remote learning.
“If students were disadvantaged before, this pandemic only exacerbates the previous systemic issue,” one student wrote. “We should focus Middlebury's financial support to pledge to support students who have a less than ideal home situation for learning. This is a serious concern for accessibility reasons as well.”
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Students reported “news and outside distractions” as the most significant impediment to their distance-learning experience. Financial burdens were another — more than 100 students reported a need to make money while living at home as being at least somewhat of an obstacle to their learning, and thirty-four students reported lacking a home as a significant obstacle.
“I've been taking care of my two younger cousins whose both parents have brain injuries,” a student wrote. “Being home means that I have to step up in my family, and that involves home-schooling and helping to raise an 11-year-old girl and a six-year-old boy. It has also meant caring for my father who has early-onset Alzheimers. The playing field is extremely unequal when school is remote.”
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A significant majority of students — 63% — reported not taking any classes credit/no credit this spring. In the push for a credit/no credit system in the spring, students cited disadvantages faced by less-privileged students as the primary reason for offering such a system. Some students acknowledged that the credit/no credit system remained relevant because of these challenges, even if they were able to choose letter grades.
“My grades ended up good this semester,” one student wrote, “but I support universal credit/no credit because I know how much stress my friends have experienced in deciding whether to take courses for standard grading or for credit.”
Summer plans
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About half of students surveyed will participate in remote internships or jobs this summer. However, 62% reported previously having a job or internship that was later cancelled due to the coronavirus.
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A slight majority of respondents reported that they will be spending the summer months in the same location as where they spent their spring semester.
Fall 2020
“The Plan”
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Respondents favored an in-person, socially distanced semester for fall 2020 — a plan that raises questions about the college’s ability to enforce social distancing protocols in classrooms, dorms and the town of Middlebury. The other favorite options — delayed on-campus semester and pre-Thanksgiving end to the semester — raise similar questions that colleges will continue to grapple with as they consider on-campus possibilities.
Students are thus not enthused by the prospect of another semester of fully-remote learning. A significant percentage of anecdotal responses submitted at the end of this survey centered around respondents’ anxieties for the fall.
“I would easily trade my off campus/ traveling privileges for an in person-semester,” one student wrote. “Being able to socialize and learn in person with friends and colleagues is my highest priority.”
“I am going to be incredibly depressed if we can not return to campus in the fall,” another wrote.
But others expressed concern that the college committing to an in-person fall semester would pose too many uncertainties to be worth it. “I would rather have a clear remote fall than a chaotic one on campus,” one student wrote. More directly, others pointed out that an in-person fall would raise pressing questions about how to enforce social distancing guidelines.
Others offered their own tips on how the college should plan for the fall. “I think we should arrive to campus early, spend 14 days in isolation with the highest social distancing measures in place, and then have a normal fall semester,” a respondent wrote. “This would hopefully eliminate any risk of the virus spreading after the two weeks of isolation.”
As students sort through anxieties about what the fall will bring, immunocompromised students are experiencing higher degrees of concern about how the semester will look than most.
“As an immunocompromised student I am very scared of what life back at Middelbury would look like, yet also do not want to give up the rest of my college years,” a student wrote. “I worry about whether Middlebury is talking with the ADA coordinators/more vulnerable students to form a fall semester plan.”
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Four-hundred and twelve respondents — 71% — would be “very unwilling” to pay full tuition for a remote fall semester. And in the anecdotal responses, students posed concerns about how tuition payments and financial aid would work in the event of a remote semester.
“Will the college allow students on financial aid to take the semester off without restrictions? If I take the semester off and am on financial aid will I still be assured financial aid for the rest of my time at Middlebury? Will financial aid decrease due to financial hardships of the college? I am concerned that the college will hold financial aid over students' heads to prevent them from withdrawing from the semester if it is all remote,” a student wrote.
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41% of respondents said they would prefer a mandatory credit/no credit system in the event of a fully remote fall semester.
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And strikingly, 337 said they would attempt to take a leave-of-absence for the fall in the event of a fully-remote semester.
“Everyone I know would try to take a semester off if it were to be remote,” one student wrote in their anecdotal response. Another wrote that a fully in-person semester would be necessary for them to even consider paying full tuition and that “it isn't worth my money or my time otherwise.”
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In voicing anxieties about the fall, students — already three months into social distancing protocols by June — were most concerned about the ability of the pandemic in preventing them from socializing with friends.
Other significant anxieties stemmed from the ongoing public health risk and potential restrictions on campus activities.
“I am extremely concerned about the potential of party/social culture instigating an outbreak,” a student wrote. “I do not know that every student may follow social distancing/quarantining rules. In fact, I expect many to break them...I am worried that places of massive, close social gatherings (social houses, Atwater, etc.) will create a possible breeding ground for the virus.”
To the college, one student wrote, “good luck making these really tough decisions.”
Correction 6/4/20, 9:30 A.M.: A previous version of this article stated that "about a third [of students] reported knowing a friend who had tested positive and another third responded as not knowing anyone who had tested positive" for Covid-19. The correct figures are 40% and 41%, respectively.
(05/22/20 10:19pm)
Timothy Castner ’93.5
Location: Massachusetts
Submitted April 2, 2020
I am a high school teacher who was on medical leave for six weeks, prior to the pandemic closing schools and colleges throughout the country. As an introvert and former Mountain Club guide I already had gone through "basic training" in social isolation. The biggest stressor was rescuing my daughter from her elite liberal arts college in the Pioneer Valley of Massachusetts, and adjusting to everyone unexpectedly being at home.
I am currently still out from work and getting exercise in an (exurban) area by doing trail maintenance in nearby conservation land and working in my lawn. I am trying to be a support for family and friends while avoiding getting sick myself in order to flatten the curve. I also am trying to spend my "surplus" to support small local businesses and those most impacted by the crisis.
What has been your greatest worry or day-to-day concern as coronavirus has spread?
That people won't listen to experts or officials and make things worse.
What has made you happy over the past few weeks?
The many examples of people showing love and concern for those suffering.
Anything else you'd like us to know?
Geography, history and the relentless pursuit of honest dialogue are crucial for understanding our present predicament and charting a path towards a better future.
The disease is tracking the European settlement and conquest of the New World. The first cases were among “globe trotting” leaders and business people. They were biotech executives in Boston and frequent flyers from Seattle, New York City and San Francisco. People who look a lot like Middlebury students and graduates and faculty.
The greatest damage has been among the urban and rural poor and elderly. Maps around Boston show that the “support staff” for global elites are being harmed disproportionately. Hotel workers have been laid off. Taxi, Uber and Lyft drivers are now competing to deliver groceries. The custodians at hospitals and the food inspectors do not have the luxury of retreating to rural hideaways. They are threatened with being fired or are the first to be laid off. The pattern of "outsourcing suffering" has been repeated throughout our shared history.
My experience as a social studies teacher and a Middlebury graduate keeps bringing me back to the “settlement” of Massachusetts. Even before “Plimoth was planted” 400 years ago, virgin soil epidemics ravaged coastal New England.
Scholars such as Emerson “Tad” Baker of Salem State University have argued that no human intervention could have prevented the population collapses that Wampanoag, Nipmuc and Abanaki populations suffered in the 17th century and beyond. Even in the midst of the pandemic, federal officials are scheming to deprive the Mashpee Wampanoag of their ancestral lands and sovereignty on Cape Cod.
My education at Middlebury and beyond has allowed me to connect the dots between the virgin soil epidemics in the 1610s with the smallpox epidemic during the Revolutionary War and the Spanish Flu outbreak in the midst of World War I. The failure of many leaders to connect these dots represents a failure to teach and submit ourselves to the grim lessons of history. Many high school history textbooks spout talking points to corporate leaders instead of environmentalists and ecologists. As a result most leaders mystified by the “unprecedented” events of the present and have to be reminded that students in the 1970s were also sent home due to campus unrest in the wake of the Kent State shootings.
But even in the midst of great suffering, leaders have always emerged to battle injustice and speak for a more inclusive world. None of them are perfect. Most are heavily critiqued or even pilloried by contemporaries. But learning about their lives and lessons can bring us new comfort and resolve as we move forward. I would recommend reading biographies and memoirs from such diverse voices as Roger Williams and Abigail Adams, who experienced and wrote about pandemics and wars. George Washington and Frederick Douglass fought for the rights of their people and then sacrificed their own interests for the good of the whole. Henry David Thoreau and Elizabeth Cady Stanton accepted internal isolation and rejection from their peers to prophetically imagine a better world. Sojourner Truth fought for the rights of women and enslaved Africans. Abraham Lincoln chose mercy over judgment during the nation’s greatest crisis.
Mother Jones became a tireless advocate and grandmother to embattled coal miners. John Steinbeck should be required reading again for his elegant nature writing, and chronicling of the dispossessed from an early depression and environmental crisis. Reinhold Niebuhr, Dr. Martin Luther King, Dorothy Day, Harvey Milk, Robert F. Kennedy, Ralph Nader, Bernie Sanders, Bill McKibben, Ellen Degeneres, Oprah, Barack Obama and even the current occupant of the White House have all tried to speak out on behalf of people who have felt “left behind” by rapid change. A new generation of scholars such as Lisa Brooks at Amherst College are helping us to reconnect with the "toxic legacies" of stories that we would prefer to forget. Such activists and authors who live at the bleeding edge of change often pay the greatest price, as Rachel Carson, climate change activists and "The Squad” can attest.
The list is never ending but it shows that prophetic and loving critique matters and that "honest patriots" lose many battles. Their sacrifices, however, inspire the next generation to keep fighting for "The Healing of the Earth."
We need the technocrats and the experts, but we also need the “synthesizers” who can make connections across diverse fields of inquiry to solve pressing challenges. Making “liberal arts” education available for everyone, especially for those excluded by the stressors of poverty and oppression, is more important now than ever before.
Those of us who have the advantages of secure jobs, retirement funds, access to health care and housing should be doing what we can to ease the suffering of those in our neighborhoods, communities, nation and planet. Only when our circle of care includes the whole ecosystem can we begin to recover from the Covid-19 crisis. An economy that values profits over health will not get us there. We need to combine the insights of both ecology and economics to imagine a better future.
(05/17/20 6:59pm)
The last day that students remaining at the college — roughly 70 in total — can stay on campus is May 31, according to an email sent to those students on Monday by Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students Baishakhi Taylor. However, Taylor wrote that some students may be approved to stay beyond that date “in cases of exceptional personal circumstances.”
(05/14/20 10:37am)
The following statement was sent to members of the college administration, as well as the Board of Trustees, on May 8. Signatories are listed at the bottom of this piece.
The piece has been lightly edited in accordance with The Campus’ style guidelines.
The coronavirus pandemic has disrupted the lives of hundreds of millions of people across the globe, causing death, sickness, stress and isolation. The parallel economic impact has likewise been enormous. As businesses have shut down, some have chosen to furlough or fire their workers, which has, in turn, led to massive increases in unemployment and economic hardships.
Middlebury has not been immune to the consequences of the virus. Some faculty, staff and students have fallen ill, we’ve lost loved ones, and our work lives have been quickly disrupted and transformed. At the college, there will be greater expenses than revenues this fiscal year and a projected deficit in the tens of millions of dollars next year. What is the best way to deal with this crisis? The Middlebury chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) believes that the solutions we should adopt should reflect the values the college has long espoused in its public statements and deeds.
One place to view the college’s values is through the people it chooses as recipients of honorary degrees. Each year Middlebury College chooses an Honorary Degree Recipient whose aspirations and achievements are meant to serve as role models for our graduating seniors. In 1996, Middlebury conferred an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters on Aaron Feuerstein. Feuerstein was the owner of Malden Mills, the producer of Polartec fleece. The company’s factory was destroyed by the largest industrial fire in Massachusetts. He could have collected the insurance money and retired to a comfortable life, leaving his former employees scrambling to find other jobs. Instead, Feuerstein vowed not only to rebuild the plant, but to continue to pay all his employees their wages and benefits during the construction process.
Could Middlebury follow Feuerstein’s example, one it so visibly honored, as it works through a temporary period of disruption caused by the virus? We believe that it can and that it should. Here’s how.
The AAUP plan: Stop endowment hoarding and create real transparency and faculty governance now
There are adequate funds in Middlebury’s endowment to get us through a 12- to 18-month period without firing staff and reducing the compensation — salaries, healthcare, sabbatical leaves, parental leaves, etc. — of those who work here. The small additional draw down from the endowment would have little long-term negative impact on the institution while providing much needed support for its loyal employees.
There is no principle of financial management, no wisdom of corporate governance or tenet of economics that would argue against an increased draw from the endowment in the face of a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic.
Yet, all the models Senior Administration is sharing with faculty groups only allow for a 5% draw from the endowment. In reality, we have the ability to use at least 20% of the endowment to confront this crisis. This includes unrestricted funds, the Trustee-designated funds, and funds designated for capital building projects.
Increasing the amount we draw from the endowment to at least 7% would allow us to maintain current compensation levels while weathering the crisis. We propose the college pursue this path instead of widespread austerity.
The so-called “five percent rule,” which has its origins in the laudable desire to preserve intergenerational equity, should itself be reconsidered. There is no ethical reason the current generation of Middlebury students, staff and faculty should bear all of the burdens. In fact, Middlebury has used up to 7.1% of the endowment as recently as 2001/02. Further, the particular choice of five percent, which delineates “surplus” from “deficit,” is itself a matter of some debate: intended to preserve the real value of endowments, there is evidence that it has allowed institutions to “endowment hoard,” and at least one New York Times op-ed has called for an eight percent rule which, if adopted, would transform the conversation on our campus. In this moment of extraordinary upheaval, we must utilize our resources to support the extraordinary education we offer here at Middlebury.
The budget challenges we now confront are not a choice between prudent finance and community values. Rather, we believe that the college must choose a financial path forward that honors the commitments it has made to faculty, staff and students — and to the values it so often endorses in public.
To help ensure that happens, we propose the creation of a collective bargaining process that will allow faculty and staff to negotiate with the administration over compensation and the financial future of the college. A democratic workplace means we must elect a body that is trained and committed to this specific bargaining task during this unique time. We need faculty advocates with a seat at the table who are treated as equals, not merely an advisory board. Such a bargaining committee would have full access to the college’s financial planning resources, and would be able to consult with the larger faculty and staff before big decisions are set in stone. We suggest that the AAUP seed such an organization, as it does at over 500 colleges across the country.
We are concerned about more than compensation, but the well-being of the institution and its future reputation. If faculty compensation is cut — as proposed in all of Senior Leadership’s projections, including the best-case scenario where students return in the fall — faculty will be forced to recalibrate their time and energies. Already, there is precarity among our community members who are supporting their families on one salary or who are living dual lives in order to maintain careers alongside their academic partners. Less money will translate to lower productivity because, necessarily, faculty will find alternative ways to generate income, such as freelance work, to pay their rent and mortgages and to support their families.
All of this means that our students will get less: fewer faculty with engaged research agendas, less faculty time and energy, and fewer faculty who feel they are being treated fairly by an institution that claims to put education first. The administration talks of “the Middlebury Way,” and relies on the rhetoric of “family” as they ask us to sacrifice for our jobs. This line of reasoning uses our own best intentions against us even as it obscures the reality that Middlebury is a nonprofit entity that has generated nearly a billion dollars in a sheltered endowment. We must ask: what is this money for if not to secure the well-being of the workers and students who make up the Middlebury community?
Middlebury’s future gets decided now
What we do now will define the future reality of working at the college. Research in the American Economic Review shows that when endowments experience negative shocks, hiring and benefits are taken away. When endowments experience positive shocks, these are not returned. We need full transparency and collaboration between our stated financial planners and the faculty and staff. To make decisions while only informing a small portion of the faculty and staff — some of whom were appointed by the administration or elected for unrelated committees — undermines faculty governance. Decisions about capital improvements, real estate acquisitions or even “brokering” a dorm building in Monterey, Calif. should not be made without the entire faculty being able to see the actual long-term costs of such projects.
As a community, we must ask ourselves what we value most — and act accordingly. Our AAUP chapter believes that high-quality education and maintaining our fair compensation for labor should be our primary concerns. We need a financial plan that reflects our mission and will rise to the occasion, not set us back a decade. We look forward to implementing such a plan alongside our faculty, staff and administrative colleagues — one that utilizes our endowment responsibly and ethically, to ensure a vibrant future for the college and those who work and learn here.
Signed,
Rachael Miyung Joo, American Studies
Marybeth E. Nevins, Anthropology
Ellen Oxfeld, Anthropology
Peter Matthews, Economics
Andrea Robbett, Economics
Tanya Byker, Economics
Julia Berazneva, Economics
Jeffrey Carpenter, Economics
Carolyn Craven, Economics
Akhil Rao, Economics
Tara L. Affolter, Education Studies
Antonia Losano, English & American Literature
Yumna Siddiqi, English & American Literature
Marion Wells, English & American Literature
Rebecca Kneale Gould, Environmental Studies
Erin J. Davis, Film & Media Studies
David Miranda-Hardy, Film & Media Culture
William Poulin-Deltour, French & Francophone Studies
Laurie Essig, Gender, Sexuality & Feminist Studies
Hemangini Gupta, Gender, Sexuality & Feminist Studies
Catharine Wright, Gender, Sexuality & Feminist Studies and Writing Program
Carly Thomsen, Gender, Sexuality & Feminist Studies
Natalie Eppelsheimer, German
Florence A. Feiereisen, German
Guntram H. Herb, Geograpy
Tamar Mayer, Geography
Carrie Anderson, History of Art & Architecture
Edward A. Vazquez, History of Art & Architecture
Febe Armanios, History
Maggie Clinton, History
Darién J. Davis, History
Joyce Mao, History
Jacob Tropp, History
Max Ward, History
Linda White, Japanese Studies
Enrique Garcia, Luso-Hispanic Studies
Gloria Estela González Zenteno, Luso-Hispanic Studies
Patricia Saldarriaga, Luso-Hispanic Studies
Luis Hernán Castañeda, Luso-Hispanic Studies
Irina Feldman, Luso-Hispanic Studies
Fernando S. Rocha, Luso-Hispanic Studies
Priscilla S. Bremser, Mathematics
Michael Olinick, Mathematics
Frank Swenton, Mathematics
Kemi Fuentes-George, Political Science
Justin Doran, Religion
Matthew Lawrence, Sociology
Jamie McCallum, Sociology
Linus Owens, Sociology
Rebecca Tiger, Sociology
James Chase Sanchez, Writing & Rhetoric
Hector Vila, Writing & Rhetoric
The signatories are members of the Middlebury branch of the AAUP.
(05/14/20 10:01am)
Content warning: This article contains graphic descriptions of assault.
“The following is an undocumented paper which does not necessarily express the views of the College Administration,” the letter began. “The topic is Contraception. Don’t expect to find much practical information on the subject in Egbert Starr Library, because I’ve looked and there isn’t any, aside from the Time Magazine report on pills.” It bore the title “Honi Soyt Qui Mal Pence,” a maxim written in Old French which translates roughly to “shamed be the person who thinks evil of it.”
The letter went on to detail how conception occurs, different methods of birth control, their effectiveness and how to access them — on trying to get a prescription for the pill, it wrote: “go to Burlington or Rutland and borrow a plain gold or silver ring from someone, invent a married name and place of residence (but don’t tell any more of your “story” than they ask for and keep your cool.)” — and what to do if the reader believed she was pregnant. It included a comprehensive illustration of abortion methods as well as ways to attempt to obtain an illegal abortion.
The letter arrived in the first-year women’s campus mailboxes packaged with one male condom. Martha McCravey ’71 was on the other end of the mailbox.
“I remember reading it and going back to the dorm and talking about it with a couple other girls, we were all sort of ‘Wow! Where did this come from? And who wrote this? And what does this mean?’” McCravey said. “My biggest reaction was that my parents must never ever see or hear about this. Because I won't be coming back to Middlebury.”
She was shocked when Olivier revealed the letter at their 45th reunion. As far as she had known, everyone had “either hid it or burned it or thrown it away because [they] were so freaked out by it.”
McCravey grew up in a family with doctors, so she knew about birth control. But it was still not something she was accustomed to thinking about in the context of her own life.
During her time at Middlebury, McCravey knew female students who tried to obtain birth control prescriptions. They went to the student health center, but Middlebury’s Medical Director at the time, Dr. William Parton, for whom Parton Health Center is named, refused to write them prescriptions. She knew a few students in her sophomore and junior years who got abortions.
“I think the college would have been just as happy for everybody to get an abortion and nobody to be pregnant walking around,” she said. “That was saving face.”
Unlike McCravey, now-Writer-in-Residence Emerita Julia Alvarez ’71 did not receive “the letter.” She was a transfer student who arrived at Middlebury in the fall of 1969.
“This is the first I hear of that letter,” Alvarez wrote in an email to The Campus. “Both hilarious, astonishing, confusing, and painful to read — how little we knew back then and how few were the options! I feel for the pressures on us as young women with ownership of our own bodies still in the future.”
When Alvarez convinced her father to let her transfer from Connecticut College for Women, she conveniently omitted the fact that Middlebury was a co-ed institution. He almost turned the car around when he drove to drop her off and saw men walking around the campus.
“I had a boyfriend — I was terrified that even petting and fooling around could impregnate me,” she wrote. “I recall my boyfriend drawing a diagram of my body and showing me how my reproductive organs worked.”
To this day, most women from the Class of 1971 do not know who sent them “the letter.”
***
When Sharon Smith ’68 mailed her early decision application from California to Middlebury, she had one goal: to get as far away from her dysfunctional family as possible.
Smith lived in Battell her first year and took classes in anything and everything she could. With no idea what she wanted to study, Smith ultimately declared a French major after hearing a rumor that all female French majors got to live in “The Chat.” She later went on to switch her major to American Literature.
The summer after her first year, Smith did not want to return home to the family she had finally escaped. Her deceased grandparents had left her money and she wanted to use it to take classes in New York City for the summer. First, she had to convince her father, who controlled her access to the money.
“I told my father I wanted to go to Barnard and he said, ‘No, you can't go there. It's dangerous.’ And he wouldn't explain why, but I gradually figured out that he assumed that if I went to a girls’ college, I would automatically be recruited into lesbianism,” Smith said. She eventually convinced him to allow her to take courses at Columbia University instead.
Smith entered into an affair with a man during her summer in New York. She visited him again for Thanksgiving break her sophomore fall.
“I was very naive and I didn't want to do some of the things that I found myself having to do,” Smith said. At the time, Smith said, contraception was not something many women knew about — or knew how to get. She had tried to get a prescription for birth control pills from a doctor while at school, but when the Vermont doctor discovered she was unmarried, he kicked her out of his office.
When Smith returned to campus after the break, she discovered she was pregnant and was forced to return home to California where she had no option but to live with her father.
Smith spent her time at home writing to old classmates from her California boarding school and traveling to San Francisco to try and convince doctors to give her an abortion. Abortion would not be legal for another eight years until 1973, when the Supreme Court passed its landmark Roe v. Wade decision.
One day, while Smith was visiting a doctor, her father went through her mail and opened a letter that revealed her pregnancy. Her father found a doctor who owed him a favor, and Smith received hormonal injections which induced a miscarriage. The process was incredibly painful and Smith bled heavily for several days.
After finding out about her pregnancy — and thus her sexual activity — her father, who Smith described as a pedophile and “genuine psychopath,” acted out abusively and violently toward her. He beat her, punching her and leaving nasty bruises all over her face and body.
Smith returned to Middlebury for her sophomore year. One of the doctors she visited in San Francisco had refused to give her an abortion, but agreed to give her a prescription for birth control. She had the pills shipped to Middlebury and continued to have the prescription sent from California for many years.
“Between junior and senior year,” Smith said, “I decided I wanted to make sure that Middlebury girls had the knowledge that every female should have about how our bodies work, what conception is what contraception is, what sex actually can do besides being fun.”
So, by doing as much research as she could and from her own experiences, Smith wrote what would go on to be known as “the letter” — the same letter that Olivier and her friends re-read with disbelief at their 45th reunion.
Smith asked a couple of close male friends who were members of the Theta Chi fraternity—“a marijuana-smoking, acid-dropping, motorcycle-riding-up-and-down-the-stairs kinda place”— to purchase a large bin of condoms. She enclosed a condom in each envelope with a copy of the letter and sent them through the campus mail system, a couple at a time to avoid suspicion.
“I was so afraid someone would find out because I might be expelled. You know, all this sex stuff is dangerous, at least for girls,” Smith said. “If the girls get the knowledge then the boys can't do whatever they want.”
In the first edition of The Campus that fall, an article appeared on the front page entitled: “Frosh Women Get ‘Unofficial Guide.’” Dr. Parton commented on the letter and verified many of its facts. “Apparently someone did a great deal of research,” he is quoted saying. He described the letter as “on the whole, very, very correct.”
Parton said that he was willing to speak with small groups of girls and women about contraceptives, but he would not prescribe the birth control pill. There were no legal or medical barriers to him doing so, but he believed “that [was] up to the individual and the individual’s family doctor.”
When McCravey and her classmates matriculated in 1967, women still had to wear skirts to dinner and men wore jackets and ties. Women occupied the Battell side of College Street and dorm hours required them to check in to their dormitories before a set time each night.
Things started to change during McCravey’s sophomore year. Dorm hours ended and “by the time junior year came, it was like all hell broke loose.” Casual sex became more common and drug use was rampant. But women still did not talk openly about sex or contraceptive use. McCravey recalls that one might have inquired to a close friend about access to contraception, but no one sat around in their dorm hallways chatting about it.
That same year, there was a doctor in Middlebury affiliated with Planned Parenthood who was willing to prescribe birth control.
“I just sort of took the bull by the horns,” she said. Rather than making up stories, she told the doctor: “I'm in this relationship and I don't want to get pregnant. I've got a life to live and I've got plans. Now's not a good time.”
Today, McCravey is in awe of the risk taken by the letter’s author — to this day, she doesn't know who sent it — in delivering that information to first-year women. She sees it as an incredibly brave gift to all of the women who received it.
“She was doing it as a warning and as a help to naive young girls that she thought we were — and that she knew we all probably were. I think it's astonishing and remarkable that she took the time and the effort and somehow managed to get it into our mailboxes and get it printed off,” McCravey said.
Smith viewed her letter as a way to give back. Today she continues to do that as a neuropsychologist in Maine, where she works primarily with Medicaid clients. She found love in 1970. Smith and her husband celebrated the 50th anniversary of their friendship this past February, and the 47th year of their marriage in April.
***
Over 50 years later, a lot has changed on Middlebury’s campus. Men live in Battell, women no longer have to wear skirts to dinner and no one has to find a fake wedding band to go to a doctor’s appointment.
Izzy Lee ’20 is the leader of the student group Sex Positive Education College Style (SPECS), an organization whose creation was inspired by an idea from a class she took her freshman year. Lee’s first reaction to “the letter” was: “Thank God that birth control has come to where it is.”
“I'm impressed that [the letter] cover[s] rhythm method, male contraceptive diaphragms, foams, jellies, creams and then the pill and stuff,” Lee said. “But the angle of how SPECS and other groups teach about birth control has shifted.
“[The letter is about] how you can safely have sex so that a boy's happy, and you don't get pregnant. But if you do get pregnant, here's what you're supposed to do,” she said.
SPECS education workshops focus primarily on consent and emphasize that “it's so normal and so fine to say, ‘we need to use a condom,’” Lee said. The club reviews how condom use can play into consent, pressure and abuse and the difference between pregnancy prevention and STI prevention. Their workshops cover different types of available contraception and how to access those methods, with an effort to be as inclusive as possible, according to Lee.
Today, students can receive contraceptive counseling at Parton Health Center.
They can schedule a visit to undergo a “risk assessment,” in which Parton staff help students determine the safest method of contraceptive for them and educate students on the method they select. Parton’s nurse practitioners can prescribe contraceptives including oral pills, injections, patches and the ring, according to Director of Health Services Dr. Mark Peluso.
A local pharmacy processes prescriptions and delivers them directly to campus. Students who are seeking an implant or an IUD, two more permanent forms of contraception, are directed to local gynecologic practices. The Planned Parenthood of New England (PPNE) health center located in Middlebury offers birth control, pregnancy testing, emergency contraception and abortion referrals, among other health care services for men, women and LGBTQ services.
The PPNE chapter was started in Middlebury in 1969 by David B. Van Vleck, a professor of biology at the college and science educator, according to a memoriam written after his death in 2019. The health center served almost 800 patients in 2019, according to PPNE Vermont Communications Director Eileen Sullivan.
“We remain as committed as ever to delivering compassionate, non-judgmental care to patients of all backgrounds and regardless of their ability to pay,” Sullivan wrote in an email to The Campus. “We love the Middlebury community and are so proud to have a presence there.”
Lee added that the Health Center can administer pregnancy tests, provide free testing for STIs and dispense Plan B (emergency contraceptive) — though only after the recipient answers a slew of questions regarding why they need it.
Like Smith, SPECS recognizes the importance of providing information about contraception and sexual relationships to students early in their Middlebury careers. SPECS holds workshops in first-year residence halls with the hope of getting resources to students who might be feeling overwhelmed by the amount of responsibility that comes with having a safe sex life.
Lee observed that students enter Middlebury with varying degrees of knowledge and comfort surrounding issues of sex and consent, depending on where they are from and what kind of sex education they received prior to Middlebury.
For Lee, the letter serves as a reminder that a lot has changed, but much still remains the same. Alvarez agreed.
“I’m so relieved things have changed and chagrined that things have not changed enough for young women worldwide,” she wrote.
(05/14/20 9:59am)
Middlebury students have seen their summer plans upended in recent weeks, as Covid-19 restrictions and the economic downturn impact internships and jobs. The Center for Careers and Internships (CCI) is working with students to create alternative summer plans, even while staff members shift to working remotely.
The center has continued regular advising appointments with staff through Zoom, and Peer Career Advisors host daily virtual “Quick Questions” to review resumes and provide internship search tips, as they typically do on campus.
The CCI is also launching several new initiatives this spring to support students in career exploration and job searches.
“We’ve done some things that I think are particularly creative that, if things were normal, might have taken six months to a year to get off the ground,” said Ursula Olender, the CCI director of career advising and employer relations.
Seniors graduate into a difficult job market
Many seniors have had their job searches derailed as they head into an uncertain job market. While Middlebury reported a record high post-graduation employment rate last year, the class of 2020 faces an economy crippled by Covid-19 closures and the highest rate of US unemployment since the Great Depression.
Rachel Veneziano ’20 had planned to stay in Vermont after graduation to do environmental service work in the state. Now, she is looking at moving to Boston, where she hopes there will be more job opportunities.
“Even in the past few weeks, I've become increasingly flexible with the types of jobs I'm applying for as well,” Veneziano said. “As an Environmental Policy major, I was originally hoping to dive into that and find environmental work after graduation.” She has since accepted the possibility of not finding work in her field right away.
Veneziano said she has found the CCI’s online programming effective and helpful in recent weeks. She and 54 others have joined the center’s new Senior Career Action Groups, in which five to seven seniors on similar career paths meet virtually with an advisor to talk about their job searches, interview experiences and ideas.
“We've been having robust discussions regarding our thoughts and concerns on the post-graduation job search,” said Jack Carew ’20, who joined an action group led by Associate Director of Career Advising Tim Mosehauer, who focuses on consulting, government, law and public policy. “I've appreciated the opportunity to hear from my peers about the strategies they use when job searching and hearing Tim’s feedback as well,” Carew said.
Carew, along with another student, was planning a series of theater and dance workshops with high school students who are writing personal statements for college, sponsored by grants from the Kathryn W. Davis Foundation’s Projects for Peace program. He is waiting to hear if the grants have been postponed until next year or canceled. In the meantime, he has found an opportunity to intern remotely with the National Council for Science and the Environment this summer.
The CCI also hosted a panel titled, “Dear Class of 2020, We've Been There! Advice from Alumni of ’07–’09,” during which Midd alumni who graduated during the Great Recession shared their stories and suggestions about entering a difficult job market.
“One of the things that we’re really working to counteract too is all the doom and gloom, and while we are certainly aware of all of the challenges…there are many organizations that indeed are still hiring and are very interested in our talented Middlebury pool of applicants,” said Peggy Burns, executive director of the CCI.
“I think it’s super important to understand that your first job doesn’t define you, it doesn’t define the rest of your life,” Olender added. “You’ve got to get your foot in the door — and it doesn’t even have to be the right door, it can be any door — but get yourself out there.”
Summer internships change amid uncertainty
Many summer internships, jobs, research positions and opportunities abroad have been canceled or postponed, leaving a gap in many students’ summer plans. The CCI’s webpage now lists “Ideas for an Impactful Summer,” which lists several recommendations for students: asking an organization to continue an internship remotely, completing a micro-internship, volunteering, studying for graduate school exams, working on senior independent research and using various online learning tools.
The center also plans to launch a new micro-internship program called MIDDGigs in the near future, connecting students with alumni for one- or two-week internships.
“This is a great way for a student whose internship may have fallen through to still be able to get some experience, do a concrete project, build some skills, network a bit and be able to get a recommendation down the road,” Burns said. “And, it’s a relatively low commitment on the part of an alum.”
The CCI is also still funding internships this summer, but they have only been authorized at this time to fund remote positions, according to a page on the website. They are also funding internships that are currently remote but that have the expectation of transitioning to in-person later in the summer — after June 15, students who have been granted this status will be able to apply to make their internships in-person, though the ability to do this will be based on CDC guidelines and local restrictions.
The CCI is not funding any international internships unless students are conducting remote internships from their hometowns abroad.
Many students have been able to adapt and create new summer plans. Gwen Davis ’22 was applying to consulting firms near Philadelphia when she got the news that Middlebury was sending students home. The internships she had applied to were canceled or unresponsive. Davis had worked with Mosehauer during the semester to create her initial summer plan, and spoke with him on Zoom after those positions disappeared.
“He sent me a whole list of resources, but reminded me that this will be a summer like no other for everyone, and that networking and our Middlebury community is one of our greatest resources,” Davis said.
She eventually found an internship with her father’s friend at a moving services company. “It certainly is not the industry I saw myself working in, but I know I have to be flexible at a time like this,” Davis said. “I now have the chance to be exposed to something totally new.”
Celeste Levy ’22 was planning to live on campus this summer as an intern with Oratory Now, working with language school programs and traveling to Burlington and Boston to coach clients. She is currently working to brainstorm how that experience will continue remotely.
“Coaching is so personal and physical, and doesn’t have the same effect over a screen. I think it will be less useful for our clients and less beneficial for me improving as a teacher. But, it will make us be creative and possibly expand our range of offerings,” Levy said.
The CCI is also partnering with Oratory Now to provide virtual interview workshops, where students record videos of themselves responding to interview prompts and send it to Oratory Now coaches for annotations. After receiving feedback, students reach out to a Midd2Midd alumni volunteer to ask for a practice interview.
The center planned to partner with Oratory Now before the pandemic, but sped up the process as recruiting shifted online. The CCI anticipates that virtual recruiting will become the new norm for first-round interviews even after students return to campuses, because it is more cost-efficient for employers.
Employment at the college may also change this year. According to Middlebury’s decision-making calendar, researchers and workers can expect a decision on their summer positions by Friday, May 15.
Francis Shiner ’23 intended to work as Music Professor Jeff Buettner's summer choral assistant. In that capacity, Shiner would have worked to digitize Middlebury’s choral archive, plan for the choir’s 2021 Japan tour, organize volunteer opportunities for music students in town and learn about running a college choir.
“In case Midd doesn't keep summer research positions, I've been figuring out other options, including a possible grant from the CCI,” Shiner said. “As of now, I don't know what my summer will be like, and that terrifies me.”
Shiner applied for an art grant to fund a summer project preparing the choir for the impacts of Covid-19, including how to have rehearsals and concerts without large group meetings.
Although the CCI will continue providing advice and resources through the summer, staff members are also trying to allay students’ anxieties.
“We talk about how this will always be the summer that has an asterisk. If there’s a gap in your resume and it happens to be this summer, I’m sure that you will be forgiven. But employers will want to know, how did you use your time?” Oldender said. “And it doesn’t have to be an internship for it to be productive.”
Correction May 14, 2020: An earlier version of this story used the incorrect pronoun for Francis Shiner '23.
(05/14/20 9:59am)
For Edyth Moldow ’23, this is a hopeful moment. Back home in Denver, Colorado, she is staying involved with the Sunday Night Environmental Group (SNEG) and Sunrise Middlebury, both close-knit environmental organizations with a large on-campus presence.
“Despite all of the negative consequences [of Covid-19] and all of the bad things that are going on in the world right now, it's actually pushing people to take more action than we were before,” Moldow said. “So in a way, it's kind of amped up the climate activism to a really high degree.”
SNEG and Sunrise have continued their work via Zoom, Instagram and other digital platforms, but it’s been hard to stay in close communications from a distance, Moldow said. While not everyone is able to devote the same energy to organizing that they could on campus, those who can still participate have become even more dedicated, with many members channeling feelings of helplessness and isolation into environmental action.
“Right now, there is more of a need than there ever has been, to be taking action in whatever capacity we're able to,” Moldow said.
Malia Armstrong ’22.5, also a member of SNEG and Sunrise, is using this time in Southern California to check in with herself and her community. The two organizations are prioritizing community-building, she said, by touching base at every meeting and figuring out new ways to support each other — an attitude she described as, ‘Don’t worry, we have your back.’
Even during a normal semester, activism can be draining, and going remote has posed additional challenges to Middlebury’s environmental leaders.
“At school, we feel like we're getting so much accomplished,” Armstrong said. “It's easy to see what we're doing. Like, we'll have an event and we can see all the people who came, or, we plan an action and we get to see the action come to fruition. But here, like it's harder to visualize success. What we've been doing, it's not tangible anymore.”
Armstrong helps new Sunrise members find their place in activism — something she also struggled with when she arrived at Middlebury.
“As a person of color, I don’t have the luxury of being able to get arrested without fear of being targeted,” she said. She prefers working behind the scenes on community building and event and action planning, a side of activism that was new to her, but which she has come to embrace.
“Being a part of such close communities with SNEG and Sunrise, and hearing other people’s stories and their journey through activism, has helped me figure out what I really enjoy and what I care about,” Armstrong said.
Jacob Freedman ’21, a co-founder of place-based conservation effort The Wild Hometown Movement and Middlebury offshoot WildMidd, was supposed to spend the semester at the Middlebury School in Argentina. The program was canceled on March 13.
“As I was flying home, I was super flip-flopping on my emotions,” Freedman said. “I was like, ‘No, this is horrible, this is the worst thing ever,’ and then 10 minutes later, I’d be like, ‘I need to do everything that I can to help my community find solace and security and safety in this time.’”
Freedman has been working with his local land trust in Worcester, Massachusetts since high school, and he jumped back into land protection work as soon as he got home. He’s been making maps using GIS, finishing an urban trail network he has wanted to get up and running for years, and searching for rattlesnakes in a nearby forest. The rattlesnake hunt is a long-shot conservation effort: developers are interested in cutting down the forest, but if Freedman can find a rattlesnake, the land will be protected.
He and a filmmaker friend are also putting together a series of videos about Worcester’s forests and nature areas. The project aims to help build community around nature.
“I think with people looking for things to do right now, just sort of showing that the natural world is alive and nature is thriving around us, that’s a really hopeful message,” he said.
Freedman and WildMidd co-founder Oscar Psychas ’21 passed the torch to new club leadership, and are focusing on expanding the organization to other New England colleges.
“The whole goal of WildMidd is connecting with nature where we live, loving the communities that we live in and recognizing that the wild world exists all around us,” Freedman said.
“I’m super excited for this to be a moment for folks who feel really comfortable on online platforms to take the lead,” said Hannah Laga Abram ’23, who does not consider herself a particularly internet-savvy activist. She thrives on in-person organizing and is using this time to center down, take long walks in rural New Mexico and refocus on the nature she is fighting to protect.
“As much organizing as is being done online and virtually, it just isn't the same as being able to be in the same space with people and really talk to folks, and hear their stories, and really engage them,” she said.
Laga Abram continues to attend SNEG meetings, and has been co-writing op-eds highlighting the need for socially transformative solutions to Covid-19.
“I think that's a really important way to get our opinions out right now,” she said, “particularly regarding the way that COVID-19 is completely enmeshed in the climate crisis, and all of the ways that the broken systems that this is revealing are exactly, also, what have caused and continue to cause the climate crisis. And that our solutions to this used to be really focused on that.”
Haley Goodman ’21 had to leave Middlebury’s program in Madrid in March. She returned home to New York and soon started volunteering remotely with the Addison County Relocalization Network (ACORN) in Middlebury, helping to start a virtual farmers’ market that opened on April 29. Customers at the market order directly from farmers and collect their orders at one of two pick-up locations, in Bristol on Wednesday afternoons and Middlebury on Thursday mornings.
Goodman worked at ACORN in the summer and fall, and they reached out to her after she left Spain about assisting with the farmers’ market. Since then, she has helped out wherever is needed, including onboarding farmers, finding locations for dropoff sites, contacting volunteers, editing the website and building the app.
“It's been so heartening, and made me just feel filled with joy and hope, trying to reach out to get volunteers, and see who's interested in helping us out in any way, because the response that I've gotten has just been people being overjoyed to share all the resources that they can,” Goodman said.
An environmental geography major, Goodman is reformatting the market’s interactive map, which connects people in Addison County to more than 200 farmers and food producers, to be compatible with its forthcoming mobile app.
Correction May 14, 2020: An earlier version of this story stated that Goodman created the interactive map. She did not make the map, but is adapting it to the mobile app.
(05/14/20 9:55am)
Middlebury College will welcome a total of 750 new students as members of the classes of 2024 and 2024.5, an uptick from last year’s cohort of 703. The increase comes after the college’s acceptance rate jumped to 24% this year, an 8% rise from last year’s admission cycle. 640 new students currently plan to enroll in September and 110 will join the college in February.
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Among those planning to matriculate, 30% are students of color and 15% will be first-generation students, increases of 3% and 4% respectively. International students will comprise 11% of the class, while 18.9% will be Pell Grant recipients. The students hail from 44 states and Washington, D.C. as well as 54 countries.
The number of students receiving financial aid has also increased to 51%, up from 41% last year. Such fluctuation from year to year is common as Middlebury remains a need-blind institution. The college will award a total of approximately $16.6 million, with the average grant being $51,378.
After the pandemic led to the cancellation of traditional admissions events such as Preview Days and on-campus tours, the college has been forced to improvise. Admitted prospective students were offered a medley of remote programs and events including three Experiential Learning Centers that offer virtual connection to staff and faculty, as well as the option to be matched with a current Middlebury student with whom to text in lieu of Preview Days.
Although these students have all accepted Middlebury’s offer of admission, these statistics are tentative. The status of the upcoming academic year is still in question, with the administration set to communicate a contingency plan for the fall semester by June 22. The admissions staff is continually monitoring deferral requests and availability of student visas for incoming first-years and other students alike, leaving concrete enrollment numbers uncertain.
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(05/07/20 10:01am)
In the wake of financial disruption and rising projected deficits, Middlebury has instituted a temporary hiring freeze for all employees. The policy is set to continue into the 2021 fiscal year, which begins July 1, 2020 and extends to July 1, 2021, and will remain until the college has “more clarity on the budget,” according to an April 23 memo to faculty and staff.
Under the freeze, the college has ceased all faculty and staff hiring processes that had not been completed before the transition to remote learning, including searches that were in the background check or verbal offer stages. In addition, the college is no longer supporting any new searches.
The Campus reported significant facilities staff shortages this fall, including a block of 16 vacancies in Custodial Services that necessitated the hiring of an externally contracted cleaning service to clean student spaces. But applications for those positions and others surged after the college’s increased entry-level wages for its lowest-paid employees in late December.
At the time the hiring freeze was instituted, all but three positions in facilities — which includes custodial and maintenance workers — were filled, according to Missy Beckwith, associate director for the Office of Facilities Services.
Dean of Faculty Sujata Moorti emphasized that faculty hiring processes were largely unaffected by the freeze given that almost all faculty hires for the 2021 fiscal year had already been completed prior to the transition to remote learning. Only one faculty search had not concluded by late March, according to Moorti; this search was frozen.
“In making this decision, we have sought to balance our commitment to academic continuity with the financial shocks the College is experiencing as a result of the knock-on effects of the pandemic,” Moorti said.
Elaborating on the college’s decision to suspend hiring processes, VP for Human Resources Karen Miller cited the college’s commitment to continue paying benefits-eligible employees.
“In light of these changes and given our intent to ensure pay continuity for our existing staff for as long as possible, we do not believe this is the time to add new employees to our workforce,” Miller wrote in her announcement to the community.
The college has implemented a number of changes to support this commitment, including instituting a “Covid-19 Pay Bank.” The Pay Bank provides up to 21 days off of work that can be used for circumstances related to the current crisis, in addition to the college’s ordinary vacation time and sick leave provisions.
The college has also attempted to support teleworking arrangements from some employees, as well as find temporary reassignment for staff after the cancelation of in-person classes and the subsequent evacuation left the campus with fewer than 140 students. These staff — who are typically considered essential workers — include dining, facilities, health and safety employees.
Miller acknowledged that this hiring freeze may burden some departments, but ultimately stressed that the change is both a necessary and a temporary mechanism to help the college adjust to financial blows related to the Covid-19 outbreak.
“We are sorry for any difficulty this may cause, but the uncertainty of this time forces us into this (temporary) position,” Miller wrote in her announcement. “Cooperation and teamwork between departments is especially important during this period. We appreciate your understanding and support.”
(05/07/20 10:00am)
Like the class of 2019.75, the class of 1918 was forced to leave Middlebury early. Just before the end of the fall 1917 term, The Campus reported emergency schedule changes that would reduce Christmas vacation by a week and move the class of 1918’s Commencement from June to early May of the following spring. This was to allow students to return home to their farms in time for the spring planting season. Farm workers, as with all types of workers, had been in short supply since the U.S. joined the war in Europe in 1917.
This was just one of many changes that the war would require. The college was raising $400,000 to secure it against wartime changes just as the men’s college senior class was “suffering depletion continually” as “one by one they drop out” to enter military service, according to a December 1917 Campus report. Nonetheless, campus life carried on. KDR continued to hold notable parties. The Campus exchanged heated op-eds about current events.
Little did they realize what was waiting for them when they returned.
The so-called Spanish Flu had been spreading across Europe since the spring. Vermont Secretary of Health Charles Dalton, like many of his counterparts across the U.S., knew it was only a matter of time before the deadly influenza pandemic would reach his state. Finally, it hit Vermont in September 1918, just as students were returning from their homes across the country. By Sept. 21, 40 “Middites” were sick. Five days later, student Charles Thompson had died. His death was followed a week later by that of another student, Charles Dana Carlson. The College implemented a quarantine and, a few days later, the state banned all public gatherings.
Initially, college officials were not overly concerned with the cold-like symptoms displayed by students. Yet, they quickly reversed course as Thompson’s health rapidly declined. The college converted Hepburn Hall, already commandeered for the new Student Army Training Corps (SATC), into an infirmary. Townspeople had set up an armed guard to ensure that students stayed on campus. The town itself was struggling to meet the medical needs of its residents, ultimately leading to a high death rate.
“[W]ires to Middlebury from New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and other states nearby were kept hot with anxious messages,” reported The Campus. “[F]athers and mothers came to town, and all was alarm.”
Middlebury’s quick and thorough response proved crucial; one student complained that six doctors visited her in a single morning. The (delayed) first issue of The Campus on Oct. 16, 1918 reported that the quarantine might soon be lifted. In the meantime, quarantined students were entertaining themselves: Marion Young, the physical director of the women’s college, organized daily hikes, exercises and soccer games for the residents of “Pearsons and Battell Cottage.” The men’s college organized an intramural football game to replace the canceled game against Williams. Classes resumed on Oct. 25.
Despite two deaths and the “military quarantine,” the flu wasn’t the only news story of the day. The SATC had taken over Starr and Hepburn halls. Their Oct. 1 induction exercises took place in a modified, pandemic-response form from the steps of a one-year-old Mead Chapel. Armed, uniformed students could be found patrolling campus day and night for the rest of the semester.
Effects of the war were felt in more subtle ways as well. A myriad of fundraisers, including the continuing endowment fundraiser, the United War Work Campaign, and a collection to eliminate The Campus’s debt, were continuously promoted — all had a connection to war disruptions. Those who remained on campus wished they could “get into the game” in Europe, as a Nov. 1918 Campus editorial read (FOMO, apparently, was as strong then as it is now).
Nonetheless, the college was slowly regaining a sense of normalcy. Although November’s Charter Day festivities had to be reduced, quarantine was lifted only two days later. This prompted an impromptu “visitors’ day on the Hill,” full of friends and family who were finally allowed to visit students.
By the next week, rumors began to spread of peace in Europe. Lieutenant Miles Jones, commandant of the Middlebury SATC, banned the SATC from celebrating until the official declaration of peace the following Monday, Nov. 11. Former college president Ezra Brainerd gave the benediction at chapel services that day. Classes were canceled and the study body flooded into town to celebrate. The troubles of this unusual semester seemed to be firmly in the past.
Now in 2020, as we wait for stay at home orders to end, for vaccines to be developed, for good news regarding our summer and fall plans, we can find comforting words in a December 1918 Campus editorial. “Middlebury faces almost daily changes. It is with a feeling of wonder as to what will come next that we greet each day and it is not strange that under such conditions the student body should be unusually restless and undecided.” Even after the war ended and the campus recovered from the pandemic, change was the rule of the day.
